We are reminded of a C8 item that led to an event 25 years ago this month. Inese Seibelis thought friend Angus Kingsmill was taking her home when he took a detour stopping at a median strip at the south pylon of Sydney Harbour Bridge. He set up a folding table, popped the Moet, stood on his head and said: "Bodger, marry me?" Inese called her dad, who suggested a reply. She returned to Angus, stood on her head and said "yes". C8 caught up with Angus, father of two, to ask about the silver wedding anniversary. "I did another head stand, this time at the Opera House. I said: "I still dig you Bodger." Who said romance is dead.
"Today, I telephoned the University of NSW and was amazed when my call was answered by a human being," says James Prior of Sylvania Waters. "No electronic assurances that my call was important but that all consultants were engaged and no directing me to one menu after another. No, she simply asked me could she help me. I told the woman to whom I wished to speak to and she put me through. I was flabbergasted."
David Davies has just moved to Callala Beach where no home delivery of the Herald is available. "Thus I have gone totally digital and very good it is too. Except, no-one can help me with an idea for properly cleaning the computer screen after I have done the crossword. Any suggestions?"
Trevor Townson, of Leichhardt, hears of a new form of medical treatment being developed in the US, presumably exploiting the therapeutic qualities of brass band music. "Otherwise, why do I hear regular references to the 'trumpet ministration'?" he asks.
Further to the phrase "self-evacuated" (C8), Michael Bogle, of Surry Hills, reports he recently heard a flight attendant refer to passengers as "self-loading freight". [C8: surely only in goat class?]
"My Coles docket tells me I have purchased Montague tree plums," says David Peach, Armidale. "If any reader knows of commercial plum varieties that grow perhaps as shrubs or ground cover, could they let C8 know. I would love to try and grow some."
Twitter: @Column8SMH