With regard to the lack of ‘good answers’ (C8), Meri Will of Northmead suggests that it depends a lot on who is being questioned. “If the interviewee is an expert, the answer will be complex; if it is a journalist, it will be tedious and indecisive; as an economist, it will be incomprehensible; if it is a child, it will be direct and concise; and if it is a politician, the answer will have absolutely nothing to do with the question.”
Newcastle’s Christopher Smith, a humble Bronze member who took up an offer of a lifetime Qantas Club membership (C8) in 1998, reports that his “digital membership card tells me it will expire in 2061 – when I will be 118 years old. I’m not sure if I’ll still be flying.”
Terry Cook from Ermington is also a lifetime frequent flyer (C8), but he worries that his “lifetime paid membership to the Qantas Club will expire in 2040, when I will be 96. Does Qantas know something I don’t?”
For her part, Judy Jones of Thornleigh has always wondered what lifetime guarantees are. “With that certainty I bought a pepper mill. Is it MY life, does it die with me? Is it the life of the pepper mill … what is? The swing tag does not give an estimated age when it died of natural causes.
A plethora of readers wrote in asking how Bruce Moxon could be sure that the person changing the tire on the Rolls-Royce (C8) was the owner and not one of those other “people”. North Curl Curl’s Brian Mann says that “a Rolls-Royce manual reportedly contains the words ‘instruct your driver’.” Dominic Hearne of Maroubra notes that Audrey fforbes-Hamilton of Penelope Keith gave the answer very succinctly: “Let the little man in the village do it”.
“Can Column 8ers explain the sudden and very irritating trend of people using their phone speakers when making and receiving calls in public?” asks Balmain’s Tim Parker. “Did I miss a health warning, or is it just another example of lack of attention in modern life?”
Leichhardt’s Keith Sutton wonders why TV weather presenters (C8) keep telling him that rain only falls in rain gauges. “I don’t have a rain gauge, so it probably won’t rain at my house. This is disturbing. I recently walked into my backyard without my umbrella and got soaking wet.
Column8@smh.com.au
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