Column 8 of the Sydney Morning Herald features readers sharing personal anecdotes and musings on various topics including AI predictions, sightings of Barry Gibb in Kings Cross, bee gees references, Al Gore rhythms versus those used by Trump officials, mushroom coffins, peeing on car wheels as an urban myth, and Australian pronunciation. Readers contribute their thoughts from locations across Sydney.
Written by the local model on 2026-09-13,
using this article's own text rather than the other coverage of the
same event (that is the story summary below).
Story summary
Garry Thomas from Oatlands ponders the future if artificial intelligence were to predict the end of the world, envisioning a scenario with no work and long breadlines. Meanwhile, Suzanne Saunders in Jiggi finds joy in seeing fireflies, describing it as "Christmas come early." In Sydney, Judy Bower of Burraneer recalls spotting Barry Gibb, one of the Bee Gees, decades ago near the Chevron Hilton in Kings Cross when she was 15. Trevor Townson from Leichhardt asks if there is a difference between rhythms associated with Al Gore and those used by the Trumpet Ministration running the White House.
Written for “Syntax Terror Guide” on 2026-09-14,
grounded in this article and the 0 other(s) covering the same event.
Why this leaning score
This article does not take a side on a contested political
question, so it has no leaning score. That is an
answer rather than a gap: a match report or a rescue can be warmly
or critically written without being left or right, and scoring it
anyway is how approval of a subject gets recorded as a political
position.
No political leaning scored for article 8575 · logged 2026-09-13
“Reading this morning of the predicted demise of the world by AI, I wonder what the world would look like,” ponders Garry Thomas from Oatlands.
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Thomas → read → Oatlands
“No work, little hope and continual breadlines where one would get bread, soup and a copy of the latest C8 to keep our morales up?”
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one → get → morales
“On a brighter note than dragonflies (C8) is the delight of fireflies up here,” says Suzanne Saunders of Jiggi.
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Saunders → say → Jiggi
“Half a dozen or so is Christmas come early.
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come → come → ?
Noted head-turner Judy Bower of Burraneer is the latest to attest to a Sydney Bee Gees sighting (C8): “Many years ago I was walking towards the Chevron Hilton in Kings Cross with my mother, grandmother and great aunt.
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I → attest → mother
I was 15 at the time and who should walk past me but Barry Gibb.
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who → walk → me
Naturally, I turned around after he had passed, and was very thrilled to see that he had done the same.”
A muso for years, that’s no fib.
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that → turn → years
You can tell by the cut of my jib.
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You → tell → jib
A long time, and yet,
I can’t say that I’ve met,
Even one of the famed brothers Gibb.
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I → say → brothers
We thank Jim Dewar of Davistown.
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We → thank → Davistown
Trevor Townson of Leichhardt was just wondering: “Are Al Gore rhythms (C8) different from the ones used by the Trumpet Ministration that runs the White House?”
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that → wonder → House
Not sure, but the latter is pretty good at banging his own drum.
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latter → bang → drum
“Mushroom coffins (C8) obviously aren’t for everyone,” thinks Merona Martin of Meroo Meadow.
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Martin → think → Meadow
“You’d have to be a fun guy to want one.”
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You → have → one
Lionel Latoszek of Long Jetty thinks “the urban myth related by Peter Riley regarding peeing on car wheels (C8) has me puzzled.
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me → think → wheels
I always thought it was the exclusive vocation of the neighbour’s dog.”
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it → think → dog
“If those full-bladdered soldiers identified by Spike Milligan, who’d stopped for a pee were travelling in a Commer, the British military truck used in World War II, then it was entirely appropriate for the Commer to come to a full stop,” reasons Julian Neylan of Dulwich Hill.
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Neylan → identify → Hill
Bernie Carberry of Connells Point has “noticed plenty of Americans interviewed on TV for the MCG NFL match.
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Carberry → notice → match
They do their best to say ‘Melbin’ and not ‘Mel-born’.
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They → do → Melbin
I teach people our own The Rain in Spain elocution lesson to learn ‘Straylin’.
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I → teach → Straylin
Don’t open your mouth too wide and recite slowly: ‘The mail train is runnin’ late t’day, mate’.
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train → open → mouth
