Dear readers, you are too kind. Following Allan Gibson's article Happy 70th birthday Column 8 on Wednesday, well wishes have been flooding in, with some requesting the original Granny logo makes a reappearance. So Granny, take a bow. Oh, and Peter Miniutti of Ashbury asks: "I wonder in 30 years' time if you'll receive a telegram from the King?" The answer my friend is blowing in the Windsor change.
Steven Fraser of Newport thinks he can top the frying pan and water blaster gift gaffes (C8). "My sister-in-law once received a set of bathroom scales and a pair of running shoes from her husband for Xmas." Meanwhile, when Stephen Lloyd-Jones of East Lindfield asked his wife why she'd given him a cordless drill for his September birthday she replied, "To screw together the shed you're getting for Christmas".
Still on the spirit of giving and what John Greenway (C8) should do with his old Christmas cards, Robyn White of Warrawee says the Inner Wheel Club of Blacktown City would love them to recycle as Christmas party hats for nursing home residents, while Robyn Lewis of Raglan would like them to decorate boxes for Domestic Violence NSW. "The boxes are filled with gifts at Christmas and distributed to refuge residents." Giving them to preschools for art and making gift tags were other ideas. But it's not a problem for Marcus Daniel, formerly of Bellingen. "It may have something to do with moving house last year but the only one to remember me and send a card was Alzheimer's Australia."
John Karlik of Pyrmont has taken up David Wilcox's challenge (C8). "I exchange greetings with my geography teacher and I shall be visiting him in Yorkshire this year. His name is Robin Hutton and he is 101 years of age. I am merely 86." By the way, Noelene Haslett of Tumbarumba points out that at 93 Mr Wilcox's teacher, Ailsa Cottam, "is very much still with it and has a knack of helping the slower readers" at a voluntary reading program.
Finally, what to call those noisy kookaburras collectively? Many of you suggested a cackle, a comedy, a laughter, a giggle, a cacophony, and a choir. Hugh McGinley even came up with "a LOL". But Glynn Stiller of Bowral and Ron Schaffer of Bellevue Hill have put us right. "There is already a collective noun for kookaburras – a riot. Quite well it describes them too."
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