One day soon I expect to wake up to one of two pieces of news. Either that Iran has the bomb or that Iran's nuclear facility has been bombed. In any case there will be huge international geopolitical implications and it will be a bad week to fill up the car.
John Dinn, Ngunnawal
NOT ENOUGH PARKING
Why is ACTPLA draft variation 308 reducing the required on-site car parking by 300 spaces for the proposed ABC flat redevelopment in Civic? I inspect quite a number of multi-unit developments and they are all desperately short on car parking. Did anyone ask an open unbiased question to the proposed tenants if they wanted car parking or not?
John Skurr, Deakin
LIFTING LINES
All praise to Mark Juddery for his marvellous commentary on the shocking revelation that Labor frontbencher Anthony Albanese, in one of his speeches, lifted lines directly from a 1995 film ,The American President (Times2, February 6, p2). As Juddery reminds us, lines from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang would be more appropriate. Perhaps Doctor Dolittle might fit the times.
Robert Willson, Deakin
SOMETHING TO AIM FOR
When I was a child in Australia in the 1950s, my grandmother told me that to be born female was bad enough, but to be born female and clever was a double blow. The point is not that Julia Gillard may not have turned out to be another Bob Menzies or Bob Hawke, but that she got there at all. Now I can look my granddaughter squarely in the eye and say: ''You too can be the prime minister of Australia''.
L. Bentley, Braddon
IN PRAISE OF BRINDABELLA
Your article ''Brindabella gardens residents 'treated like dirt''' (February 6, p1) certainly does not reflect my own impressions of that facility. Having had my very elderly mother in care there, I found the staff there most supportive during what were difficult times for my mother. Above all, the standards of hygiene and cleanliness were excellent. Aged-care facilities, whether in Canberra or elsewhere, can be easy targets of media criticism.
Jon Hayes, Hughes
NEVER HEARD OF NURDLE
Unlike some of your readers, I was not discombobulated by the use of ''contumacious'' in The Canberra Times last week. However, the word ''nurdling'', as used to describe the batsmen's treatment of the Indian bowlers, (''India's joy short-lived as Aussies bounce back to best'', February 6, p18) has me stumped. Is this a sporting neologism I haven't caught up with?
Patrick Ryan, Turner
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