“It’s not often that ferrets make the news,” notes Bob Phillips of Cabarita. “But the digital paper Nextdoor contains this post by a subscriber: ‘Hi Guys, our ferret has escaped today.’ Reminds me of the time in Indonesia when our inherited (he came with our rented house), musang (civet cat), ‘Batman’, escaped and ran amok in the local village, eating their chooks and eggs. The villagers ransomed him for the value of the chooks and eggs, plus a little bit more for time and trouble.” Coffee fanciers would not find that to be a high ransom, judging by the latest Kopi luwak prices.
Peter Blore of Orange loves it when our baby-kissers go the extra mile: “Cracking speech from the heart by Peter Dutton to the Paralympic team. No emotion, read from a speech by speechwriters. Inspired.”
The cardigan craze (C8) provides an answer: “In reply to Kenneth Smith of Orange, yes I am the same person,” says former Channel RVN-2 presenter Isabel Ireland of Wagga Wagga. “However, the cardigans are in colour, while the TV was black and white.”
Sylvia Dewey of Bowral is the latest to make a claim on the Purl One disciple: “Are you the same Isabel that I used to work with in the Children’s Theatre Workshop in Wagga Wagga many years ago? I, too, wore cardigans back then.”
“On the subject of postcodes (C8), pre-1967 localities were assigned codes in the form of a letter and number,” says Allan Gibson of Cherrybrook. “I still have envelopes with the addresses for Gosford (1N) and Port Macquarie (2C).”
Robyn Lewis of Raglan thinks that “The four per cent of being ‘unsure’ if they watched the State of Origin game (C8) could have been celebrating or commiserating after the game. This is often a good reason for memory loss, so I’m told.”
“Being a cryptocruciverbalist, I enjoyed the multiple postcodes in the clue to derive Broken Hill (C8),” says Greg Oehm of Western Creek (Tas). “It reminds me of a similar one that appeared many years ago: ‘Lassie’s one in 6225 (6)’. It took a while for me to realise Collie, WA has the postcode 6225. And no, it’s not a shaggy dog story.”
Following Viv Munter’s recent viewing of multiple medicos on the road (C8), Marcia Horvai of Pennant Hills “saw the number plate DRD-OOM. In this case, I hope it doesn’t belong to a doctor.”
Column8@smh.com.au
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