In which we pay a bittersweet salute to suburbia, in three acts.
The dawn: "When I moved to this bushland off Fox Valley Road in Wahroonga many years ago, I would wake to a dawn chorus of currawongs and magpies, among others," muses Derek Ruddock, of Wahroonga. "It's several years since I've heard, let alone seen one, which raises the question: where have all the currawongs gone?"
The day: "Is this Sydney's best kept secret?" asks Janelle Scott, of Cronulla. "A magnificent display of jacarandas in Campsie along the middle of the road in Eighth Avenue stretching for almost a kilometre. Even more spectacular in a week or two when the blue agapanthas beneath will also be flowering. There are over 70 jacarandas along the median strip of this wonderful avenue!"
The din: "It's 8 o'clock on a blissful Sunday morning," semaphores Peter Hayes, of Port Macquarie. "The chap across the road is mowing his lawn. But he's a decent fellow, concerned that the noise he is making might shatter the tranquillity. So he dons a pair of industrial earmuffs."
A Wing Wing at UTS (C8, Friday) won't fly with Sino-savvy readers. "Given that Chinese surnames come before given names," chides Graham Collins, of Catalina, seconded by Queenslander Garry Hubble, "wouldn't it be the Chau Wing?" Citing Tania Park at Balgowlah Heights (and, gingerly) North Sydney Oval's Bob Stand, we stand by the Wing Wing.
Harking back to the sad events of the Melbourne Cup, a poser from Paul McNickle, of East Maitland. "I thought an autopsy was only for humans and that for animals it was called a necropsy. Is using autopsy for an animal OK but not technically correct or were journalists just being lazy, uninformed or worse still patronising to the public?" Paul, the Oxford renders it interchangeable; as for those traits, journalists are allowed any two; all three being regarded most dimly.
"I don't understand a provision that would bar someone from being president because of who their children are," said Barack Obama on Friday, deploring the exclusion of Aung San Suu Kyi from Myanmar's top job. Touche, Mr President, though your country has done itself out of a President Kissinger and a President Schwarzenegger by restricting the office to those of US birth. (Our Nicole, born in Hawaii as were you, is eligible, hurrah! And if Australia had those rules, only Kevin Rudd would qualify out of our last three head honchos).
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