Boldly going analogue

Ken Rolph of Blacktown advises that “clock faces (C8) will be with us far into the future. Anyone who watches Star Trek: Enterprise knows this. In season two, episode 13, Dawn, a human and alien pilot of two space shuttles have an encounter that leads to them crashing on a barren moon. To escape, they must work together, combining bits from the crashed craft to make one that will fly. Trip tells Zho’Kaan to move a wheel 90 degrees clockwise. In season two, episode 18, The Crossing, T’Pol (a Vulcan) instructs Dr Phlox (a Denobulan) in opening and closing a gas pipeline valve: ‘To open, move lever to three o’clock. To close, move lever to nine o’clock.’ This seems odd. I understood that it would be impossible to communicate the difference between right/clockwise and left/anticlockwise unless you and the alien were standing next to each other.”

“I hope I have better luck preparing Christmas lunch next year,” laments Kenneth Smith of Orange. “Yesterday I had to call the Pork Baking Hotline and all I heard was crackling.”

“Does anyone still make parfaits?” asks Josephine Piper of Miranda. “I have six beautiful parfait glasses with six silver spoons languishing in a cupboard, to be given away as I downsize.”

Regarding proceedings in Melbourne today, Stephanie Edwards of Leichhardt suggests that “if any English bowler gets Travis Head out for less than 50, King Charles should consider a knighthood!”

“There was indeed an NRMA Pilot post (C8) in Ashfield,” confirms Gwynn Boyd of Mosman. “There was also a sign on a power pole on the north side of the same junction with the bold words ‘Hume Highway Melbourne’.”

The pilot scheme had a European version, too. Ian Nicholls of Baulkham Hills reports that when “driving into Oslo in 1965 in a British car, we were stopped by an attractive young lady on a motor scooter and asked if we needed an escort into the city centre. It was a service provided by the town council to welcome foreign visitors.”

Replying to Roger Bowie’s ancient history exam typo (C8), Chrissie Whitlock of Earlwood writes: “I believe the Pubic Wars hovered on the razor’s edge.”

“My 12-year-old daughter’s blip was an exam question about ‘thermals’,” recalls Kaye Ferguson of Greenwich. “She waxed on about long winter underwear. Needless to say, that was the end of her geography career. She’s now an accountant.”

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