Column 8

Sydney Morning Herald

Tuesday April 8, 2008

Capitals and apostrophes are still over Column 8's email like a foodstuff belonging to a madperson. Alert readers too many to mention by name, sorry, remark on the difference between Polish and polish, The Spit and spit, and Nice and nice. As for aspostrophes, the sun will never set on them while readers still have breath in their bodies and keyboards at their fingertips. Thank you also to those who brought up archy and mehitabel, Don Marquis's charmingly capital-less cockroach and cat couple. May the sun never set on them, either.

Some days Column 8 seems the next best thing to St Jude. Following Saturday's question about a tobacco jar made of wood from HMAS Sydney, answers have flooded in. Consensus is that the wood would be from the first HMAS Sydney, which was launched in 1912 and broken up in 1929. It seems then to have been cut into more pieces than a medieval saint as people are reporting all sorts of things, some quite large, with the same little brass plaques. If this goes on much longer we may be able to reassemble the ship, rename her the Column 8 and set sail for warmer climes.

For all the people who have contacted Column 8 wanting to donate old cameras to a good cause, here is an excellent one. Shelley Frame is the visual art, photography and digital media teacher at Muirfield High School. A fire destroyed the school's darkroom and, although the P&C is doing its best, it can't cover everything in replacements. Shelley would be delighted to receive old SLRs at the school, Barclay Road, North Rocks. She has also volunteered to collect any, but as she would be all over Sydney like a madwoman's you-know-what, it would be good if any readers could arrange with friends to gather enough at one place to make a trip worthwhile.

Many eager readers have sprung to the defence of Tamara (Column 8, Friday), pointing out that it is not a made-up name but has a long pedigree through Arabic and Russian. Some readers also say that it is the name of a Central Asian conqueror, but perhaps they are getting mixed up with Tamerlane. The Tammys we know wouldn't do things like that. However, Column 8 stands corrected and apologises to any Tamaras still feeling affronted.

Headlines (Column 8 these past weeks) continue to appear. Robert Phillip, of Lane Cove, would like to add, "Prostitutes appeal to the Pope" from Hong Kong. While we are on the subject, would readers please stop sending in the supposed headline about the escaped lunatic and the laundrywomen? It is tasteless, we don't believe it and we aren't going to sully the niceness of Column 8 by repeating it anyway. Thank you.

A number of readers have commented, following recent discussion on the matter of this column's gender, that last week Column 8 referred to itself as "it" and seem to feel this is some sort of admission of transgenderism. It most certainly is not.

© 2008 Sydney Morning Herald

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