The following celebrity encounter (C8) from Jeff Wall of Thirroul is a little bit up in the air: “On a Pan Am jumbo flight out of Heathrow to New York in the summer of ’78, at the small ovular bar at the back of the lower deck (when flying was a joy), I was having a yarn with a Texan oil man over a beer, when George Best descended the stairs from first class. Five minutes later, the diminutive Davy Jones from the Monkees joined the shout.”
Eric Scott of Bondi Junction was “inspired by Seppo Ranki (C8), and had my first dabble in AI to find that my contributions to C8 are ‘witty submissions, sharp observations and humorous anecdotes’ while my letters are ‘concise and often witty’. What is rather worrying is finding that AI provides career entries for two positions I have held in the last twenty years, describing me in the second as ‘a separate Eric Scott’. That could be useful if ever called before ICAC. Instead of saying ‘I don’t recall’ I have AI to prove that it was not I.”
The expert systems concluded that Don Bain of Port Macquarie’s greatest C8 achievement is the Mal, Jono and Vic scoop: “I consulted AI but found only opprobrium against my name. ‘Responsible for the spurious notion that the venerated George Manojlovic was no more than a pseudonym for a trio of talented Herald writers, a preposterous theory, quickly disproved but lingering in the minds of some’.”
Judy Klein of Double Bay minds her language (C8): “Anyone needing ‘Romani oppidum oppugnobant’? It’s all that remains after years of Latin lessons. You never know when ‘The Romans are attacking the town’ may come in handy.”
“Visiting the Wollombi Sculpture Festival over the weekend, my wife and I came across a Bunya pine in the yard of the local gallery,” writes Malcolm McEwen of North Turramurra. “There was a sign on it with writing so small I had to stand close to read it, right under the branches. It warned that the tree’s massive (up to 10 kilogram) nuts could fall without warning, and advised not to stand close.”
“After arriving back in Tokyo recently on our wedding anniversary, after a 12-day cruise, imagine our surprise to read the Herald Cryptic Clue 1-across: Marie and Tim roam about the sea.” We thank correspondents Marie and Tim Slack-Smith of Castle Hill.
Column8@smh.com.au
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