I WAS wondering if there is a motorist out there that could answer a question for me.

I was coming home from Queanbeyan along Yass Road toward Canberra just minding my own business when this ute with a canopy on the back came out of Sutton Road and, without even hesitating, turned right, straight into my path.

I braked and called him a couple of names under my breath. He pulled to his right and stopped and I thought he realised what he had done and pulled over to let me go.

A little way up the road the lights were red and when I stopped this same “gentleman” stopped beside me and verbally abused me.

I couldn’t hear what he was saying, but I could tell by the rage on his face and the hand movements he was making that he wasn’t wishing me a nice day.

Please, someone tell me I don’t have to give way to traffic coming from Sutton Road on to Yass Road or maybe the so-called gentleman may read this and explain what his rage was all about.

Pat Dickson, via email

In praise of greyhounds

IT may be time for a closer look at that magnificent animal – the greyhound.

Its origin may lie with the ancient Celts from Eastern Europe or Eurasia. Greyhound-type dogs of small, medium, and large size appear to have been bred across Europe since that time.

It is believed that they were introduced to the British Isles in the 5th and 6th century BC from Celtic mainland Europe, although the Picts and other peoples of now modern Scotland were believed to have had large hounds similar to that of the deerhound before the 6th century BC.

In society we attempt to stop ill-treatment of human beings or animals in a civilised way. So why should we strip the greyhound of its most magnificent attributes – speed and sight in combination with the chase? Rarely is there a sight so thrilling as greyhounds in full bound. So let us rid the greyhound sport of maltreatment as quickly as possible, but let us never degrade the animal by removing from it what makes it a greyhound.

Colliss Parrett, Barton

Hey, just sayin’

AN ACT Greens Labor Government spokesperson was quoted in the media recently saying tunnelling underneath Mt Ainslie would be considered as one option for fast rail direction.

I find that difficult to comprehend when several years ago the NADEC report re the new Canberra International Dragway saw the antagonistic nimbys boo-hoo the whole project as they could see the noise and ground shudder “from five kilometres away” causing Mt Ainslie to subside, which the government grabbed hold of with both hands.

Therefore, on that information “fantasy”, I see the result of a five-metre horizontal drilling rig boring away through Mt Ainslie causing the same if not a more catastrophic subsidence.

It’s a bit like me predicting that units built along the Kingston Foreshore or the proposed West Basin government project will sooner or later collapse into the lake as the underground earth subsides. Hey, just sayin’.

Michael Attwell, Dunlop