CALLUM Wallington, a Novocastrian in the US, has brought some Newcastle magic to American TV.
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Brandishing a home-made "Joey Johns is God" placard at Washington's Verizon Centre, Callum made the telecast of the WWE wrestling. The idea came to him on the train from New York.
"It just happened to be the night Monday Night Raw was on, so I thought it'd be funny to see myself on TV when I got home," says Callum.
"Then on the train to Washington I had the idea of a sign with something only people from Newcastle would understand."
He's certainly pulled that off. Callum's sign even had a B-side: "Bedsy 4 PM".
THE identity of the Nelsons Plains punt driver in the Maitland flood who saved dozens of cows has remained a mystery to Peter Bogan, of East Maitland (Topics, June 29), for 60 years. Until now.
The driver that day in February 1955 was "Snow" Guest, says Keith Ingham of Raymond Terrace.
Keith, who was minding a herd of dairy cattle as the brown water rose, pleaded with Snow not to tie up his punt. Words were exchanged before Snow relented. He drove back and forth until 11.30am that day, and in three hours saved nearly all the cattle in Nelsons Plains.
"We went over in groups," recalls Keith.
"There were about 45 [cows] in our lot, and 30 in each of the other two."
Snow, as you'd expect, was fair-haired. Keith can't summon his real name, but remembers the rising water pulling the punt's cable so tight "you could play a tune on it".
"People were seeking refuge in their ceilings. They had to remove the iron sheets from the roofs to get them out," he says.
"That April [2015] flood was like a high tide compared with the '55 one."
THESE tennis prodigies, eh? Oh, boy. We've got another one.
Topics badly wants to defend Nick Kyrgios against those who'd hang him for the great Australian crime of having a personality. But it's getting hard. As Fairfax's Andrew Webster observes, "I'm starting to feel like Nick Kyrgios is a bit of a tool."
So far at Wimbledon, Australia's great white hope has bravely used his downtrodden position in the tennis hierarchy (pro tennis player) to challenge crushing authority (the saps who are the chair umps, technically employed by the players).
Amid the messianic poses, a theme has emerged.
"Does it feel strong to be up there?" Kyrgios scoffed at umpire Ali Nili in his second round win over Argentina's Juan Monaco.
Now compare with the musings of Bane, Batman's respirator-masked nemesis in The Dark Knight Rises.
"Do you feel in charge?" wheezed Bane, before (spoiler alert) disposing of Ben Mendelsohn.
Nick! Don't do this! Super villainy is a career that rarely ends well.
