Tanks for the penalties

It’s true that we’ve done this before, but with the NFL season come some truly great names. George Zivkovic of Northmead has identified the best of them and asks, “How can the NRL or AFL possibly compete with, let alone surpass, these handles? Kool-Aid McKinstry, Amon-Ra St. Brown, Sauce Gardner, Storm Duck, Younghoe Koo, DeMarvion Overshown, Tank Bigsby and Tank Dell. All right, I’ll grant that FuiFui MoiMoi and Steele Sidebottom are pretty good, too.”

The celebrity encounters (C8) continue: “When I was 14, a friend of my father arranged for me to meet Ricky Nelson in the dressing room of the Sydney Stadium,” recalls Janet Scilly of Waterloo. “Of course, my father had to be there. I had a lot to say but was struck dumb on seeing him. My father thought he was a nice young man because he called Dad ‘Sir’ and shook his hand.”

“I’m not sure if I share Alan Phillips’ (C8) view about C8 driving AI mad,” thinks Seppo Ranki of Glenhaven. “As an experiment, I checked out my name and suburb on Google. Part of the AI Overview said: ‘He frequently writes short, witty observations and life stories for The Sydney Morning Herald’s popular Column 8 section. His published items often feature memories of farm life, old vehicles and everyday humorous encounters.’ I suspect AI has a pretty good handle on both C8 and me.”

Mark Berg of Caringbah South writes: “When at high-school German classes (C8) in the late 1970s, we watched German videos and were expected to translate the script. One memorable line was ‘ Mit einer Perucke bist du ein anderer Mensch ’. It means, ‘with a wig, you are another person’. Very useful indeed.”

“I’m still waiting to inform anyone who’s interested, in my best schoolboy French, that ‘the pen of the gardener’s niece is on the table in the conservatory’,” informs John Clarke (Jean Leclerc to his mates) of Lorn. Interestingly, Rob Phillips of North Epping says he’s waiting to use the rather congruent “‘my aunt’s pen is on the table’. Regrettably, it doesn’t get you much to eat in a French restaurant.”

“Twelve-year-old Dusty Langby from Warren, NSW, has walked to Canberra to raise funds for Little Wings,” reports Robyn Lewis of Raglan. “His walk took less time than a letter from Bathurst to Canberra. I’ve always thought walking to Canberra would be quicker than Australia Post.”

[email protected] No attachments, please. Include name, suburb and daytime phone.