Does COVID have lollipops licked

September 29, 2021 â€" 9.00pm

“Those who man the stop/slow signs are qualified traffic controllers who have completed an approved training course,” says Peter Riley of Penrith. “My street is used for the final practical exam in which each student has to stop/slow a certain number of cars to qualify. But in these days of lockdown, vehicles are few and far between and they all look a bit forlorn, waiting on the sunny side of the street for a car, a bike, a garbage truck, a steam roller, a marching band. Anything!”

Another great divide (C8). Russell Murphy of Bayview says: “Rusted-on natives of the insular peninsular often brag of ‘never needing to cross the bridge’. If queried about which bridge, the normal response is the bridge at North Narrabeen.”

On the face of it, readers won’t be rushing to dispose of their masks on returning to “full-face normality” (C8). Robert Hosking of Paddington has “found them an excellent antidote to the spores of the plane tree: usually left me gasping for breath!” Gerald Erickson of West Ryde uses them to read the Herald, as he’s allergic to newspaper: “Works a treat to stop the inching eyes and sneezing.” Lastly, Peter Miniutti of Ashbury thinks “I may use mine to decorate the Christmas tree this year.”

“Our four-year-old granddaughter asked last night during FaceTime ‘how many more sleeps ’til lockdown is over?’ Happily we could say 13!” writes Angela Miller of Bondi Junction.

Ironically, the majority of feedback on Rosemary Le Page’s thieving pet story (C8), referred to a fictional culprit, one Slinky Malinki. However, some of you had a tale to tell. Like Toni Lorentzen of Fennell Bay: “When living in Muswellbrook in the late 1970s, we acquired an abandoned kelpie called Ned. He would go into people’s yards and collect any shoes left on verandahs. Each evening, I would knock on neighbours’ doors with a basket full of shoes to find their owners. We realised Ned was missing rounding-up his sheep and he went to live on a 400 acre farm where he found better things to marshall than old shoes.” Ok, who’s going to tell Toni what it means when the dog goes to “live on a farm”?

Moving on to slightly bigger critters, Richard Kirby of Campbelltown noticed that “the Penrith Panthers played in pink last weekend. The Pink Panthers could have been a hit, but nobody noticed”.

Column8@smh.com.au

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