Column 8

The SMH website re-design certainly got the attention of Column 8 readers – for all the wrong reasons. During five frustrating days of not being able to locate their beloved Granny on the website, the pedants of Column 8 rose up and let everyone know about their displeasure. The powers that be got the message loud and clear and a solution has been found. As of last Friday Column 8 now has its own entry on the side Menu, between Editorial and Obituaries. You can all give yourselves a pat on the back for a job well done.

Ian Campbell's fire truck (C8) is one thing, but it is an ambulance number plate that is really causing concern. Both Margaret McCredie of Chatswood and Martin Letherbarrow of Old Toongabbie wrote in with sightings of an ambulance with the number plate DNR, noting that DNR is medical shorthand for Do Not Resuscitate. However, as Martin accurately points out: "The NSW Ambulance Service do have more urgent matters to which they need attend to than their number plates."

So many three-word transistor (C8) contributions. Jeff Stanton of Strathfield offers "current modulating device", while Sam Mehendra of Castle Hill suggests "amplifies weak signals". However electrical engineer Bernard Robertson of Forde (ACT) needs only two: "Amplifies current."

This transistor (C8) is a winner. Alan Bell of Bradbury was "travelling home from work at Parramatta on the Campbelltown line when the train pulled into Cabramatta station. A Vietnamese teenager said: 'See you later radio" as a young girl got off. "Why did you call her radio?" asked one of his companions. "Oh that's Tran's sister," he replied."

Richard Stewart of Pearl Beach notes that "in the early days of office computing when IBM (C8) was number one, staff of the company were expected to go wherever the company directed. Hence the company name was spoken as I've Been Moved."

The item about the bottle of Blue Nun (C8) reminded Ann Clydesdale of Bathurst of a bottle of Mango Flavoured Spumante that appeared in the Christmas hamper raffle run by the staff social club at the school where she taught for many years. "Each staff member contributed an item, I think the Mango Flavoured Spumante contributor had won it at a trivia night. From then on, the previous year's raffle winner contributed it the next year. I don't know what eventually happened to it, it was still circulating when I retired."