Drawn to a close

September 1, 2026 — 9:00pmNow the dust has settled, it’s time for C8-ers to venerate the realness of Granny’s page neighbour Cathy Wilcox. This salutation comes from Joy Cooksey of Harrington: “A real cartoonist’s picture paints the thousand words no artificial artist will ever achieve, just as a copyist’s attempt doesn’t create an original. AI can never replace Wilcox because it lacks a real heart and soul.”Unsurprisingly, Jim Dewar of Davistown took the poetic route.A word from an old wooden-spoonist:Cheerio to our favourite cartoonist.Let’s hope a wee break,Is all that she’ll take,Then return to the letters page soonest.Lyn Langtry of East Ryde is another to witness the chrysalis of the Brothers Gibb (C8): “Picture the scene in the mid-sixties. A group of schoolgirls spending a day at the Royal Easter Show. In a building little more than a shed, some bands were entertaining the crowd. One was the Bee Gees. My diary just records the name but no commentary.”Now, a hard-hitting question from Marjie Williamson of Blaxland: “On a foil sheet of 10 tablets, I always start at the top-right-hand tablet. Do left-handed people start at the top-left? Or the bottom-left?” Powerful.Ron Besdansky of Northbridge has more on licensing law loopholes (C8): “In the ’70s, I went to folk music concerts at a pub in the city. At 11pm, they started selling food so they could continue serving alcohol, so I used to pay one dollar to get what I called the ‘statutory sausage roll’. No relation to the democracy sausage.”“Like Don Leayr (C8), I was bucked when our nice op-shop lady enquired whether I was the Don Bain she saw every now and again in Column 8,” writes the Don Bain of Port Macquarie: “I modestly acquiesced – and reflected that this doubled such enquiries, following that of Eddie, my friendly pharmacist, in 2019.” Seppo Ranki of Glenhaven recalls that a few years ago “my grandson was visiting the glow-worms at Tamborine Mountain, and when signing-in, was asked by a volunteer if he knew a Seppo Ranki. After being told I was his grandfather, the volunteer said he once worked at the Herald and suggested next time he bring his grandfather along. We had occasion to visit some months later, but evidently, he was no longer volunteering there. Could this have been a rare sighting of a former Granny or editorship operative?”Column8@smh.com.auNo attachments, please.Include name, suburb and daytime phone.More:Column 8OpinionFor subscribersPoetryCartoonsPop musicFrom our partners