“Pirate DVDs (C8) were readily available in the markets when I visited Thailand,” recalls Judith Rostron of Killarney Heights. “However, I thought I’d do the right thing and bought a commercially wrapped, two-DVD set of Chicago in a department store. Disc two was okay. Disc one appeared to be a Thai action film.”

Leichhardt local, Ben Lashbrook think’s “it’s essential for you to know that Coles Leichhardt has stuck up a fancy new ‘Welcome to Coles Leichhardt’ sign at the front of their busy store. That’s all well and good, except the image is of the Melbourne city skyline from the Royal Botanic Gardens. Please spread this news far and wide because a corporate as profitable as Coles needs all the schadenfreude it deserves.”

“I worked at Sun Microsystems back in the day,” writes Kevin Sheehan of Mosman. “When oneAustralia buckled and sank during the 1995 America’s Cup, the last thing you could see was our logo on the bow going under. The marketing manager said: ‘You can’t buy advertising like that’. The next morning, when driving, I saw a billboard in the city that said: ‘Steinlager. The only thing that goes down faster than an Australian yacht.’ I had to pull over because I was laughing so hard. Knowing how hard it would have been to get that done overnight, I had a Steinlager later in the day in their honour. Didn’t touch the sides.”

Following Gara Baldwin’s come from behind list in the race to the bottoms (C8), Allan Gibson of Cherrybrook, Leo Narushevich of Cooma and Max Petrie of Palm Beach have pointed out our very own Pitt Town Bottoms in NSW, with Leo asking if it rates a double entry.

“The Cotswolds in England has a plethora of villages called ‘Wallop’ and my mind is chuckling at the idea of a ‘Wallop Bottom’,” adds John Constable of Balmain.

“An osprey couple built their nest on top of one of the 40-metre-high light towers used for night football games at Berrambool Oval, Merimbula,” writes Valerie Little of Tathra. “The family has arrived and now the Diggers Australian Rules Football Club keep one light on all the time to keep the family warm during the Polar blasts of freezing air our area is currently experiencing. Do Column 8-ers know of any other nesting places, with central heating, which can beat our osprey family’s home for location, location, location?”

Column8@smh.com.au

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