Latest news with #BabyBook
The Age
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Age
Tapping into board game culture
'While on Grumpy Grandpa child-minding duty recently and playing the board game Monopoly Dogs with my four-year-old grandson, watching him count out the play-money got me wondering,' notes (geddit?) Neville Pleffer of Rooty Hill. 'Will future Monopoly games come with charge cards, EFTPOS machines and the encroaching card surcharge? Or has it already happened? Oh, the joy of counting those paper notes.' 'My Baby Book (C8) had a space for quaint sayings,' says Robyn Lewis of Raglan. 'I remember asking my mother why the page had no quotes. She explained there was not enough space to write 'all the interesting things' I said to the family or her friends.' 'Please tell me the practice of eating brains (C8) ceased with the advent of publicity about Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD)?' implores Jo Rainbow of Orange. 'Only zombies like brains.' Rhonda Ellis' yarn on air-rifle combat (C8) certainly got Tony Winton of Mosman fired up: 'At Sirius Cove in the late 1940s, the kids on the western side had Daisy air rifles, and on the eastern side we had German-made Diane air rifles, which were brought from Germany after WWII. There were lots and lots of bangs and nobody was ever hurt, except me, who received a dart to my right thigh. All this friendly action was to stop when the Mosman police arrived and we all disappeared. Even as kids we thought that our shooting fun had better stop.' 'My brother, when about 10, organised and held the inaugural BB gun championship of suburban Bexley in the 1960s,' recalls Janice Creenaune of Austinmer. 'He painted one pellet gold as the prize and encased it in a little container. Sharing armoury was essential, and practice minimal, but serious backyard shooting ruled (if maybe not legal). A winner was eventually found and little Ralphie went home quite chuffed.' 'So when a bird flies into an engine at the new Nancy Bird Walton Airport, the headlines will read 'Bird stops bird on Bird'?' asks George Zivkovic of Northmead. 'The Australian government is this year distributing the highest amount of free money ever (in the form of welfare payments),' notes Bill Leigh of West Pennant Hills. 'Meanwhile, the National Parks and Wildlife Service ask us, 'Please Do Not Feed the Animals'. The stated reason being 'the animals will grow dependent on handouts and will not learn to take care of themselves'. Funny how that works.'
Sydney Morning Herald
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Sydney Morning Herald
Tapping into board game culture
'While on Grumpy Grandpa child-minding duty recently and playing the board game Monopoly Dogs with my four-year-old grandson, watching him count out the play-money got me wondering,' notes (geddit?) Neville Pleffer of Rooty Hill. 'Will future Monopoly games come with charge cards, EFTPOS machines and the encroaching card surcharge? Or has it already happened? Oh, the joy of counting those paper notes.' 'My Baby Book (C8) had a space for quaint sayings,' says Robyn Lewis of Raglan. 'I remember asking my mother why the page had no quotes. She explained there was not enough space to write 'all the interesting things' I said to the family or her friends.' 'Please tell me the practice of eating brains (C8) ceased with the advent of publicity about Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD)?' implores Jo Rainbow of Orange. 'Only zombies like brains.' Rhonda Ellis' yarn on air-rifle combat (C8) certainly got Tony Winton of Mosman fired up: 'At Sirius Cove in the late 1940s, the kids on the western side had Daisy air rifles, and on the eastern side we had German-made Diane air rifles, which were brought from Germany after WWII. There were lots and lots of bangs and nobody was ever hurt, except me, who received a dart to my right thigh. All this friendly action was to stop when the Mosman police arrived and we all disappeared. Even as kids we thought that our shooting fun had better stop.' 'My brother, when about 10, organised and held the inaugural BB gun championship of suburban Bexley in the 1960s,' recalls Janice Creenaune of Austinmer. 'He painted one pellet gold as the prize and encased it in a little container. Sharing armoury was essential, and practice minimal, but serious backyard shooting ruled (if maybe not legal). A winner was eventually found and little Ralphie went home quite chuffed.' 'So when a bird flies into an engine at the new Nancy Bird Walton Airport, the headlines will read 'Bird stops bird on Bird'?' asks George Zivkovic of Northmead. 'The Australian government is this year distributing the highest amount of free money ever (in the form of welfare payments),' notes Bill Leigh of West Pennant Hills. 'Meanwhile, the National Parks and Wildlife Service ask us, 'Please Do Not Feed the Animals'. The stated reason being 'the animals will grow dependent on handouts and will not learn to take care of themselves'. Funny how that works.'
The Age
5 days ago
- General
- The Age
Highlights from a walk in the park
Stewart Martin of Mangerton makes an extraterrestrial observation: 'In the cold pre-dawn darkness, we walk our dogs at the local park. Aliens (C8) flying over would go elsewhere after witnessing earthlings searching for dog poo with their mobile phones.' A lack of bags sometimes leads Caz Willis of Bowral to utilise coffee cups from the bin: 'Watching an owner let his pooch drop and keep walking, I caught up with him and handed him one. The look on his face told me he'd never 'scooped' before. Didn't see him in the park after that.' Forget Madeiran boomerangs (C8), Julie Apps of Pemulwuy, holidaying in the UK says, 'Imagine my surprise to find berthed beside the royal yacht Britannia in Edinburgh, the Spirit of Tasmania. I gather it's there because it won't fit in the new berth in Tasmania and someone won't pay its parking fees. The guides on Britannia think it's great because it hides an industrial eyesore.' With the long weekend approaching, it's D-Day for the cracker night tales (C8), but not before we hear from Jennifer Richardson of Macmasters Beach: 'As a child, we had the largest bonfire in the neighbourhood, built by the kids in the area. Part of the final ceremony was to put an effigy on the top. My brothers decided it should be female and well-dressed. Imagine my mum's surprise when she saw her favourite dress going up in flames atop the bonfire.' 'In the 1980s, my young brother returned home in the wee hours after a big night out on the turps and messing with bungers,' writes David Ramsay of Bexley. 'After putting on a toastie, he fell asleep. Overnight the toaster disintegrated and filled the house with acrid smoke. On awakening, my mother declared: 'They're just going to have to ban cracker night!'' 'What a heartless lot these cracker night tragics are (C8)!' affirms Kerrie Wehbe of Blacktown. 'All that boys-will-be-boys nostalgia for all that carnage, and not an apology in sight.' Just regarding all that boys-will-be-boys nostalgia, we'd like to thank Judy Jones, Libby Cameron, Meri Will, Joan Hayward, Rhonda Ellis and Jennifer from Macmasters for their cracker night sagas. Lesley McBurney of Wavell Heights (Qld) returns to the Baby Book (C8): 'I, too, would drive my firstborn to her gran's to eat brains which I cannot stand. We called it 'yummy food', to avoid having to admit what it was.'
Sydney Morning Herald
5 days ago
- General
- Sydney Morning Herald
Highlights from a walk in the park
Stewart Martin of Mangerton makes an extraterrestrial observation: 'In the cold pre-dawn darkness, we walk our dogs at the local park. Aliens (C8) flying over would go elsewhere after witnessing earthlings searching for dog poo with their mobile phones.' A lack of bags sometimes leads Caz Willis of Bowral to utilise coffee cups from the bin: 'Watching an owner let his pooch drop and keep walking, I caught up with him and handed him one. The look on his face told me he'd never 'scooped' before. Didn't see him in the park after that.' Forget Madeiran boomerangs (C8), Julie Apps of Pemulwuy, holidaying in the UK says, 'Imagine my surprise to find berthed beside the royal yacht Britannia in Edinburgh, the Spirit of Tasmania. I gather it's there because it won't fit in the new berth in Tasmania and someone won't pay its parking fees. The guides on Britannia think it's great because it hides an industrial eyesore.' With the long weekend approaching, it's D-Day for the cracker night tales (C8), but not before we hear from Jennifer Richardson of Macmasters Beach: 'As a child, we had the largest bonfire in the neighbourhood, built by the kids in the area. Part of the final ceremony was to put an effigy on the top. My brothers decided it should be female and well-dressed. Imagine my mum's surprise when she saw her favourite dress going up in flames atop the bonfire.' 'In the 1980s, my young brother returned home in the wee hours after a big night out on the turps and messing with bungers,' writes David Ramsay of Bexley. 'After putting on a toastie, he fell asleep. Overnight the toaster disintegrated and filled the house with acrid smoke. On awakening, my mother declared: 'They're just going to have to ban cracker night!'' 'What a heartless lot these cracker night tragics are (C8)!' affirms Kerrie Wehbe of Blacktown. 'All that boys-will-be-boys nostalgia for all that carnage, and not an apology in sight.' Just regarding all that boys-will-be-boys nostalgia, we'd like to thank Judy Jones, Libby Cameron, Meri Will, Joan Hayward, Rhonda Ellis and Jennifer from Macmasters for their cracker night sagas. Lesley McBurney of Wavell Heights (Qld) returns to the Baby Book (C8): 'I, too, would drive my firstborn to her gran's to eat brains which I cannot stand. We called it 'yummy food', to avoid having to admit what it was.'
