Concealment with the best
Orange’s Joan Brown admits you might not need to know this, but says that “a sturdy red rubber band, like the one favored by postmen, will last two minutes in the microwave. I discovered this when one was kind of lying on a plate while heating up a meal.”
As proof that he can obfuscate with the best of ’em (C8), Kianga’s John Brown calls “a spade a manually operated, pedal-operated earth-moving implement just to make sure people know what it’s doing.” That’s what politicians do.”
The “unplanned dismantling” of the rocket (C8) reminded Sippy Downs’ Ray Franklin of the first use of helicopters by television stations in Sydney. “They were single-engine machines, usually piloted by Vietnamese vets. Given their background, they were rarely troubled by the occasional forced landing. The pilots referred to such mishaps as “involuntary assisted descents” – the assist was the rotor, which was still spinning but not powered. An ’emergency landing’ was when your tail rotor was shot down or your cockpit controls were damaged by gunfire.”
Inspired by Shirley Rider’s post about the pre-Berowra Waters Inn Restaurant (C8), Robyn Douglas of Kurrajong shares that 66 years ago her “parents George and Annie Pattricj owned what was then the Pacific Private Hotel. My mother was indeed a very good cook. I left school that year and may have served her “memorable meal.” I would certainly have washed her dishes.”
It feels like we’re playing a six-degree round of Column 8 right now. Stephanie Edwards of Roseville reveals that the army camp near Bathurst mentioned by Geoff Nilon (C8) was “on land confiscated by the government from my grandfather’s sheep station. Geoff’s father was lucky – many of the troops who left there were taken prisoner of war after the fall of Singapore. At the former entrance to the camp there is a monument to the men of the 2nd/30th battalions”.
Inspired by Geoff Nilon (C8), Peter B. Buckley from New Ulm (USA) recalls the story of how India’s first international canoe slalom team was selected. “A group of Indian army officers were asked if any of them had been in a raft before. A number stepped forward and were similarly said, “Congratulations, you are now representing India at the Canoe Slalom World Championships”. After a week of training in the kayak, they were pushed into the competition.” Peter learned their story while having lunch with them at the championships.
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