"The front page of Thursday's St George Leader carries a headline referring to 'identical triplets'," writes Sally Vinson, of Blakehurst, and Column 8 heard the term on the wireless on the same day. "To all the biologists out there," Sally (and Column 8) ask, "Is this possible? Can a single fertilised cell divide into three parts? Or have I misunderstood the meaning of 'identical'?"
"Yes, Pat Yeo, that does sound sexist," writes Tim Schroder, of Gordon (a woman's straightforward solution to the dripping tap problem, Column 8, Saturday), "but while you're in the kitchen, can you get me a beer?"
"What a pity that the hyphen is disappearing from English usage," bemoans Peter Butt, of Wollstonecraft. "Its presence can provide subtleties that its absence obscures. Today I saw a removalist truck, proudly advertising a 'female packing service'. Did this mean 'female packing-service' or 'female-packing service'?" Column 8 is unsure whether the hyphen would clarify much of anything here. We're convinced that the ambiguity problem goes much deeper than that.
"Until reading of it in your column, I knew nothing about a bee's dick," admits Ruth Cogswell, of Pymble. "But years ago we would refer to something or someone as being 'the bee's knees', meant as a high compliment. It could also be derogatory, as in 'Oh, she thinks she's the bee's knees'." A coarser endorsement that has always appealed to Column 8 (earthy as we are), is "the duck's guts".
Which brings us to this, from our Never Mind The Quality, Feel The Width! Desk. "'Chop' may well be a measurement of goodness," concedes Andrew Mollenhauer, of Mount Riverview (Column 8, Saturday), "but I've often heard the term 'out of whack' being used to describe something that's not quite right. I'd really like to know what 'whack' is, and if there is a gradient of whackness, maybe like microwhacks, to measure how far out of whack you are?"
"When travelling on a bus the other day with the Opal system 'out of action'," reports Peter Noone, Lane Cove North, "I was bemused when a boarding passenger noticed this and alighted, muttering 'I'll catch the next one.' On quizzing the driver, I was told that by travelling just one stop you can accumulate the requisite eight trips, and travel free for the rest of the week."
Twitter: @Column8SMH