August 17, 2026 — 9:00pm Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add more. AAA The latest missive from Chris Henning of Rozelle, his first since the COVID days, is headed “A Very Important Question”, and so it is: “If whichever Boeing 747 President Trump
The latest missive from Chris Henning of Rozelle, his first since the COVID days, is headed “A Very Important Question”, and so it is: “If whichever Boeing 747 President Trump travels in becomes automatically Air Force One by virtue of his presence, does that mean that the catering van in which he was recently moved secretly to a secure alternative plane was, while he was inside, Food Truck One? I think the public deserves to know.” Excellent to hear from you, Chris. It’s good to stay in touch.
“My husband, who likes sailing, and I couldn’t help but bag out All Is Lost, a sea survival movie starring Robert Redford that must be the worst ‘silent’ movie (C8) we’ve seen,” attests Merilyn McClung of Forestville. “Unbelievable from start to finish with nothing said except for the final scene, where he utters the f-word. Anyone who sails would know there would be much more salty language.”
“In the early ’70s, my husband was denied entry (C8) to a restaurant for not wearing a tie,” writes Helen Howes of Collaroy. “Although at that time restaurants and clubs frequently kept a collection of ties, and sometimes jackets, on hand to fulfil the dress code, his shirt was in a (thankfully) short-lived fashion for a high polo-neck, made of normal cotton shirt material, with buttons at the nape, so nowhere to properly put a tie without it looking like a hangman’s noose. We ate elsewhere.”
Lyn Langtry of East Ryde says that “in 1975 in Glastonbury, Somerset, my friend with a fashionable Afro hairstyle had difficulty in finding accommodation because she was considered a hippie and hippies weren’t considered desirable guests in some establishments”. Granny can’t help wondering what they did when Marc Bolan turned up there in 1970.
“I can attest that it is true, crossing by overnight boat from Sumatra to Penang in 1975 there was a communal trimming of hair and smartening of clothing in fear of the dreaded S.H.I.T. stamp and the 48 hours to get out of Malaysia,” recalls Graham Cochrane of Balmain.
I’m sure many people have spoken messages on their mobiles converted into text, with some that can be understood immediately while others are gibberish,” offers Leoni Hubbard of Windradyne. “I received a message recently that was gibberish except for the first sentence, which challenged me to ‘Read me if you can’. I couldn’t!”
Column8@smh.com.au
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