Column 8
Sydney Morning Herald
Friday August 1, 2008
"I just noticed last week's Lotto results," writes Christopher Walsh, of Bondi. "For picking six numbers, the first division winners each received $666,666.67. So soon after the Pope left town, I wonder what lucky devils won that?" The devil's in the detail, as the cliche has it - what's the story with the seven cents? That's really creepy.
"Does anyone know where one can buy an old-fashioned gas-stove lighter?" writes a nostalgic, and by the sounds of it, consumer of cold dinners, Don Meharry, of Guildford. "Not the barbecue lighters with butane gas. I mean the ones with flint or the ones with a small catalytic pellet or even the piezoelectric sort. I get the distinct impression that every new gas stove has an automatic lighter built in, and if it stops working one's only option is to buy a new stove!""In reply to Column 8's question, no, my internet order has not arrived yet," reports Leah Gaskell, of Engadine (Column 8, Tuesday), "but they usually take about two weeks, which is great, because by that time I've usually forgotten what I've ordered and I'm very excited to open the mysterious parcel I've been sent."Apart from being an old India hand with fine train tales to tell (Column 8, last week), Basil Johnson is a peace-broker: "To allow all combatants in the apostrophic wars to retire with honour," Basil writes, "May I offer this from The Oxford Companion To The English Language: ' ... it appears from the evidence that there never was a golden age in which the rules for the use of the possessive apostrophe in English were clear-cut and known, understood, and followed by most educated people'." Then again, that means we can happily carrying on arguing about it until the end of time. "The clue for 'defenestration' in Saturday's crossword was misleading, in that it is not restricted to throwing only persons out of a window," insists Shunmugam Govindasamy, of Randwick (Column 8, Wednesday). "The correct definition of defenestration is 'the act of throwing out of a window'. Since all sorts of things, including, sometimes, persons, get thrown out of windows, perhaps there is a need for such a word. Or perhaps not. And, interestingly and oddly, 'defenestration' is not the opposite of 'fenestration' which of course means 'the arrangement of windows in a building'." We have received an inordinate amount of mail on this subject, but chose to publish Shunmugam's item, because he was the only reader with a name that is even more interesting than "defenestrate". OK, just one more, from Laurie Magan, of Tamworth. "Oh, the ignorance of the modern generation. Isn't English taught at school any more? To add a related 'word for the day', the act of throwing someone off a bridge is to 'deponticate'. More can be supplied if required." Yesterday's query about shaving brings this, from Bob Macoun, of Lindfield: "Mate, when I lived in the bush, I would shave every Sunday, whether I needed to or not."
© 2008 Sydney Morning Herald
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