Column 8

There's been much revelry now the digital Granny has been located (C8). Bob Kershaw of Woonona thinks it's "good to see you have some clout in the Herald". (Credit to the readers. The C8 mailbox was in some distress for a while there). A cautious Rod Burke of Green Point writes: "Good to hear that Granny is 'between Editorial and Obituaries'. Let's hope she never makes it all the way there!"

John Hickey of Coolangatta says: "As a Resident Medical Officer in 1964 my first number plate (C8) was DOA."

A question from Ben Aveling of Alexandria: "I am looking for a verb to describe the act of walking while using a mobile phone. Perhaps my Google-fu has failed me, but I have searched online without success. Can Column 8 and its most erudite readers help?"

Alan Marel's search for cases of spontaneous combustion (C8) has led to a note on the type from Bill Holley of Mayfield: "I have it on good authority that Vern Toose, a compositor working for Frank Packer in days of yore, designed a set of lead overshoes which were worn to prevent the risk of spontaneous human combustion due to friction in the typesetting departments of major newspapers."

The more IBM interpretations (C8) we get, the more esoteric they seem. Alastair Browne of Cromer Heights recalls: "In the early days, IBM also stood for Imitation Burroughs Machines," while Barry Kemple of North Turramurra says long ago "another interpretation was I'm Bloody Mandrake."

Brett Crowley of Caringbah on the sound of silence: "Column 8ers might be able to help with 'quiet carriage' etiquette. In the front 'quiet carriage' of the Sydney to Blue Mountains train yesterday, a gentleman was snoring, not a gentle snore but as loud as it gets, with the occasional choke. Over the PA, the guard continually advised all of us awake passengers to keep the noise down. Should you be in the noisy carriage if you are going to snore?"

"I see that Roger Bannister, the first person to run a mile in under 4 minutes, has died at the age of 88," writes Peter Riley of Penrith. "He had a good run."

"Anaesthetists must be joking about changing their name to anaesthesiologists," says Seppo Ranki of Glenhaven. "Nobody will be able to spell it. The Concise Oxford Dictionary provides the solution – 'insensibility doctors'. If they think they need more street cred they could try 'knockout doctors' ".