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Passing through customs (C8) can be quite the episode, reckons Pauline McGinley of Drummoyne: “In the 1990s, my young son was given a toy Dalek as a birthday gift whilst visiting the UK. No problem leaving from Heathrow, but an entirely different story in transit through Bangkok. It was treated with the utmost suspicion, guards in a huddle, looking over their shoulders at us, as this alleged weapon of mass destruction went backwards and forwards many times through the scanner. My biggest fear was that the sensor button would be accidentally activated, and the thing would light up like a Christmas tree while menacingly repeating, ‘Exterminate!’”
Peter Miniutti of Ashbury writes: “John Bailey [C8] reminded me of a few funny HSC answers that circulated the staff room, such as ‘Triffids were dangerous plants that waved their testicles in the air’ and ‘Where was the American Declaration of Independence signed?’ – ‘at the bottom like usual’.”
“My HSC English trial was marred by my own misefforts,” says Janice Creenaune of Austinmer. “When I referred to Chaucer’s The Pardner’s Tale, my teacher reflected on my use of a term from the Wild West, rather than the Middle English Period. I still feel the embarrassment, exactly 50 years since. But it also helped to bring empathy for my many HSC students’ errors under stressful circumstances.”
“Double doctors [C8], magisters etc are also part of Austrian society, no doubt due to the aristocracy losing their titles in the First Republic after World War I,” writes Merran Loewenthal of Birchgrove. “Another lovely quirk is that the Austrian president can grant the title of ‘Professor’ to anyone deemed worthy, e.g. singers, actors, etc. This means those professors who actually owe their title to being at a university very often insist on being addressed as ‘Universitätsprofessor’.”
Kaye Price of Bathurst lived in Fiji for many years and finds the approach to titles there a lot more relaxed, especially when reflecting on the minister at her church, Reverend Doctor Professor What’sisname.
“I wasn’t her lawyer, and I was rarely late for court,” claims Andrew Cohen of Glebe. “But I can imagine a prosecutor, if I had been quipping ‘Mister Sister Lister’s [C8] solicitor missed her’. The clerk of the court: ‘I bet that pissed her’.”
“So, Barnaby Joyce has joined One Nation,” notes Mark Berg of Caringbah South. “No idea which one, but I hope it isn’t Australia.”
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