A melancholic discussion with friend-comrade
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One who remembers aerograms (C8) and epistle-writing fondly is Daphne Roper of New Lambton. Being first-generation Australian from Scottish parents, she used to receive “monthly newsy aerograms from my Scottish grandmother living in Glasgow without, unfortunately, ever meeting her. My maternal Scottish grandmother lived with us but I always felt far closer and more familiar with the one who wrote those letters.”
Garrett Naumann of Cammeray can’t help with Russian proverbs (C8) but he does claim to have invented a new Russian word. “On my last trip of the seven seas, on a container ship from Antwerp (Belgium) to Tauranga (New Zealand), we celebrated the cook’s birthday with plenty of vodka, speck and black bread. I suggested to the Russians and Ukrainians that ‘drug’, which means ‘friend’ in Russian, could be combined with the well-known ‘tovarishch’ (comrade) to form ‘drugvarishch’. With typical Russian melancholy, a vodka-fuelled discussion was had for hours. Next morning the Russian captain handed me a note, which I still cherish and possess, that read: ‘Drugvarishch – you have the copyright’.”
Also unable to help with the exact Russian proverb (C8) is Alexandra Szalay of Berowra Creek, instead offering another learned by her father, Imre, a Hungarian pilot who flew night recovery missions during WWII and was twice captured by the Russians in Polish fields. “The second time they greeted each other like old friends, and shared their food and campsite stories. Consequently, my father learnt some Russian, including this idiom: ‘There are no roses without thorns’.” Imre also passed on the following piece of knowledge from that time: “It’s true, every Russian can sing.”
John Christie of Oatley offers “true love is loving the otherwise unlovable” as the proverb (C8) however, to Granny at least, the lack of bleakness in the phrasing and the absence of any mention of wolves or other animals or birds does not make it seem particularly identifiable as Russian.
Nicole from the National Broadband Network and her threatening robo-call scam is making the rounds. Ian Kendall of Hazelbrook reports that “yesterday she was calling from Sydney, today from Melbourne, last week from Perth. So busy travelling she hasn’t caught up with the fact that the NBN is two years late in this area.”
While David Gordon of Cranebrook is unsure about a tax being considered a good (C8) when so many think it’s bad, he’s firm in the belief that “it is a service: the transfer of wealth from one group to others.”
Column8@smh.com.au
Article source: https://www.watoday.com.au/politics/federal/fears-of-a-dangerous-precedent-as-labour-hire-extends-to-medicare-20181024-p50bq7.html?ref=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_source=rss_politics_federal
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