Helen Vaughan-Roberts of Noosaville (Qld) spins the tale of her spider. “Outside my kitchen window,there presently lives a St Andrew’s Cross spider with five good legs,one three-quarter leg and two half legs. He/she/it has clung on through recent beastly weather and seems to be doing alright. Last week,a noisy miner in the shrub opposite was eyeing breakfast,took off to achieve it,saw me through the glass,and did the most remarkable 180-degree turn mid-flight back to the shrub with a guilty ‘nothing to see here’ blush from beak to toes. The spider still bounces gently in the web.”
John Crowe of Cherrybrook recalls when he lived in Brooklyn in a house with an outdoor dunny with a resident diamond python in the rafters. He often heard the screams from startled or herpetophobic visitors.
Regarding Nola Tucker’s skinks (C8),Richard Hambly of Potts Point,advises,“We have skinks,plural,in our apartment block and they use the stairwell to change abodes. Thinking to evict them,I realised they ate cockroaches so I desisted. Good pest control for an 80-year-old building to have around.”
Mary Carde of Parrearra (Qld) gets back to elements (C8). “I notice that all contributors to the recent discussion on elements and periodic tables have been male. Maybe because chemistry was not a subject we girls were encouraged to study back in the day.The closest I got to learning about chemicals and their reactions involved transforming sugar into toffees for the school fete. Anyway,for all you learned blokes who may not be abreast with recent research,I thought I’d pass on this scientific observation about sodium and hydrogen ... but,then,NaH.”
Ted Richards of Batemans Bay asks,“Can we add linoleum to the elements list?” No,Ted,we can’t.
More passport woes (C8). Llewellyn Dickeson of Culburra Beach reports,“My husband has a full white beard and while trying to clear automated facial recognition at Singapore immigration,he was repeatedly refused entry and instructed to remove his mask. Without having a razor handy it took human intervention for him to finally be allowed into the country.”
Onto a new subject,Warwick Sherman of Huntleys Point tells us of an annual sales event where you can buy used golf balls and personalise them. “A short time ago a playing buddy found a lost ball with the logo:‘I identify as in bounds’.”
Column8@smh.com.au
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