September 14, 2026 — 9:00pm Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add more. AAA In reflecting on then-transport minister Anthony Albanese’s gaffe in quoting a fictional character in a 2012 speech to the National Press Club – US president Andrew Shepherd, played by Michael
In reflecting on then-transport minister Anthony Albanese’s gaffe in quoting a fictional character in a 2012 speech to the National Press Club – US president Andrew Shepherd, played by Michael Douglas in the movie The American President – Philip Cooney of Wentworth Falls wonders, “Which other fictional presidents and PMs might do well in today’s opinion polls?” For the record, Albo escaped censure from then-prime minister Julia Gillard because she loves Douglas and “he’s married to a Welsh woman”.
Janice Creenaune of Austinmer has more on the curbside nature break (C8): “While living in Oxfordshire, we had to drive the A34 north to school in Kidlington to the west of Oxford. Accidents were common and the two lanes were often blocked for sometimes four to six hours, depending on circumstances. Men found relieving themselves fairly easy. For women, not so much. I was advised that it was acceptable to open both car doors on one side and pee between them. Leaving the car to go elsewhere was not an option, but I did wonder about the MGs that were still very popular and once made in Abingdon-on-Thames where we lived.”
Granny wished she’d heard this piece of advice from David Prest of Thrumster a number of decades earlier: “My dad told me never to put a tyre valve cap in my mouth while inflating a tyre as you never knew if a dog (or a person) had peed on the tyre. ‘Always put it on the ground,’ he said.”
“Rumour has it that a prototype of a coffin (C8) made from toadstools was rejected because it was too small and could not cater for larger people,” reports Paul Taylor of Winston Hills. “Evidently, there was not mushroom inside.”
With golf cart-chasing US political aide, Natalie Harp, having a moment in the news, Kevin Hunt of Kenthurst notes that “the Daily Mail reports that Melania Trump’s ‘top spokesman’, Marc Beckman, in an interview with media host Stella Inger Escobedo, complained that the liberal press was obsessed with the first lady’s private life, as well as the ‘hardworking, very talented, very intelligent’ close aide to the president, aka ‘the human printer’. ‘The press,’ Beckman said, ‘just keep harping on with these subjects.’ If the pun was intended, it was quite a good one.”
“How quickly can I become a US citizen?” asks Michael Phillips of Mount Coolum (Qld). “$US5000 would come in handy in the roll-up to Christmas.”
Column8@smh.com.au
No attachments, please.
Include name, suburb and daytime phone.
From our partners
Check back often for more exciting news!
