source : the age
Ron Johnston is right, according to John Bollen of Goulburn who notes that “at the time I did the Leaving Certificate (1960) markers of the English paper were reporting that some students appeared to have only read the Classic Comics (C8) version of set novels. Wuthering Heights got particular mention.”
“Illegible signatures are more widespread than you think,” reckons David Kerr of Fern Bay. “Try signing for a parcel on the delivery person’s phone screen with one finger and see how it looks.”
Barbara Ryan of Caringbah South says that “even though my husband and I were taught to write many years ago, his signature is usually described as a bird’s nest, and mine as a spider with diarrhoea. I’m left-handed so I guess you couldn’t expect much better.”
“Recently, I gave a handwritten letter to a grandchild,” writes Stewart Martin of Mangerton. ‘Later, I asked if she’d read it. She replied that it was too hard because all the ‘things’ were joined together. ‘So I got Nana to read it to me’.”
Seems like the University of NSW (C8) was fair game back in the day. Daniel Low of Pymble adds to the defilement : “Leonie Atkinson and Tony Sullivan use differing names for what in my day was always referred to as ‘Kensington High School’ and, no, I didn’t go to the sandstone edifice on Parramatta Road.”
Which has its own chronicler in Rob Baxter of Naremburn: “Perhaps Tony is thinking of the ‘Transient Building’ at the University of Sydney, which remained transient from the 1940s until 2016. As a Biochemistry student in this building I remember adding ice to my 37-degree incubation bath in summer to keep it at the correct temperature.”
“Derrick Mason (C8) raises a fair point regarding football,” concedes Nicolas Harrison of Evans Head. “Some sports accurately describe a scoring aspect of their game, e.g. baseball, volleyball and netball. In the interests of accuracy, rugby union, rugby league and American football should be called handball.” Where this leaves the actual sport of handball (both Olympic and schoolyard) is a toss-up.
“Frank Johnson (C8) refers to contributor Russell Hill, who used to blow-up Airfix model kits on cracker night,” notes Paul Hunt of Engadine. “Frank not only followed Russell in such questionable capers, but embraced the real world in becoming a civil engineer, a worthy profession indeed – there’s nothing worse than a rude engineer.”
Column8@smh.com.au
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