Laughter
One morning when I was walking to work, I slipped on some ice and did one of those attempted corrections. My right foot went up in front of me, somewhere near my stomach, but, rather than pitching backward, my left foot compensated to hold me to the ground. But on the icy sidewalk my left foot slipped backward, propelling me forward, and I fell face-first into a snowbank on the front lawn of my neighbour Mr Wyznicki’s house.
Literally face-first. I was up to my neck in snow. I pictured myself, my head buried in the snow, my ass sticking up in the air, my legs dangling and waving like an overturned beetle. And that made me laugh. I had to spit out some snow.
I felt someone grab my shoulders and pull me out of the snowbank. The good samaritan turned out to be another neighbour, Fritz. He was chuckling a little, and said, “What happened to you?”
“I wiped out,” I said. “Winter casualty. I’ve lived in this country only forty years so I’m not used to ice yet.”
Fritz…
Madam: Archbishop Fisher (July-August 2024) does not resist the attacks on his church by the political, social or scientific atheists and those who insist on not being told what to do.
Aug 29 2024
6 mins
To claim Aborigines have the world's oldest continuous culture is to misunderstand the meaning of culture, which continuously changes over time and location. For a culture not to change over time would be a reproach and certainly not a cause for celebration, for it would indicate that there had been no capacity to adapt. Clearly this has not been the case
Aug 20 2024
23 mins
A friend and longtime supporter of Quadrant, Clive James sent us a poem in 2010, which we published in our December issue. Like the Taronga Park Aquarium he recalls in its 'mocked-up sandstone cave' it's not to be forgotten
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2 mins