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Andrew Taubman’s corflute sightings (C8) makes Richard Miller of Wyoming wonder if there should be a limit on their use, perhaps set by a number of hectares per candidate. “Or perhaps we spread the word (pun intended) that corflutes make bonza tree guards, the printed message on the inside or out according to taste.”
Ian M Bryant of Barden Ridge mourns the loss of the word ‘galoot’ from our Australian lexicon (C8) because one of the best spoonerisms he ever heard is now almost meaningless. “During the Queen’s visit to Australia in 1954, I was listening to the radio as Her Majesty arrived into Farm Cove. As the Royal launch rounded the headland the Australian Navy commenced firing their guns, and the announcer explained: ‘That is the start of a 21 sun galoot’.”
“In Canberra, Yes [Prime] Minister (C8) is viewed by public servants as a training course,” writes (the aptly named) Bernard Robertson-Dunn of Forde (ACT).
Seeing the reports of two million people on the streets of Toronto and in Hong Kong reminded Fergan O’Sullivan of Artarmon of a time many years ago when, as a young reporter, he covered a very large and noisy street meeting in Dublin. “A policeman on duty gave me an estimate of the number of people in the thousands. I asked how he knew. ‘Simple,’ he said. ‘You count the legs and divide by two’.”
Paul Sun of Edgecliff has a curly question for the brains trust. “In ’70s-’80s Australia, what was the name given to the party-item that, when blown into, unravels a sprung paper coil and makes a noise (and then retracts when you stop blowing)? It’s not vuvuzela, kazoo, honker, whisker doodle, squawker or husker do. Apparently referred to as ‘The Mother-in-Law’s Tongue’ in some parts of the world, packets in shops I’ve visited are all marked ‘blowers’ or ‘blowouts’.” Paul has a vague recollection of it being a two-syllable term, possibly onomatopoeic with a ‘zzz’ sound in it, but no-one he has asked can remember the exact name and the suggestions for colloquial names by Google and other internet sites were just not right. Anyone?
Harry Bell of Bowral has a gripe. “Bathroom is surely the most laughable of the many euphemisms for latrine with which English, especially American English, abounds. Bathroom? Even when the speaker has in mind merely a urinal or pissoire? He wants to splash his boots, not to climb into a tub. Can’t we flush this stupidity out of the language?”
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