“Am I right in thinking the current Australian cricket squad lacks memorable nicknames?” asks Don Bain of Port Macquarie. “Even the taciturn Steve Waugh seemed more affable as ‘Tugga’, while younger brother Mark, struggling to gain his first baggy green, was dubbed ‘Afghanistan’ – the forgotten Waugh. Any ideas for Will Pucovski?”
The Words of the Year (C8) are here! Starting with Greg Rutter of Musk (Vic): “After a particularly windy spring in these parts, I vote for psithurism: the sound of wind through leaves.” Graham Russell of Clovelly got his word from Herald letters: “Deplatformed is my nomination. It generally means to prevent a person from contributing to a debate.” Lastly, Gregory Abbott of Macleay Island (Qld) says: “With 2020 hindsight, my favourite word is ytirgetni (you’re to get nothing). Ytirgetni is a derivative and compound backflip of a common word, integrity. Ni, an anachronism (noth/ing) from early handstrip (nil).” Got all that? Good. Greg’s example sentence reads: “In 2021 the cataract of political integrity shall bring to mind a deepening sense of voter ytirgetni”.
Joan Brown of Orange writes: “My Melbourne sister told me about a person, now the lockdown is over, who has taken upon themself the job of going around mowing overgrown nature strips in her area, as an act of kindness, without notifying the residents.”
“You know you’re living in a contactless world when QR codes start appearing on the back of public toilet doors,” muses Jack Dikian of Mosman.
“Chinese appropriation of kimchi (Herald, December 5) demonstrates that the PRC is the equal of the Stalinists at photoshopping images, redacting text, creating documents and making absurd nationalist claims,” reckons John Hobbs of Greystanes. “They have been doing this since the Chinese general Wei Ling Tong defeated the French at Waterloo.”
