NEWS CURIOSITIES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 103, 2 May 1936, Page 4 (Supplement)

NEWS CURIOSITIES.

JOTTINGS FROM WORLD PRESS. A new trick he was adding to his mechanical man's repertoire at the Pacific International Exposition nearly cost the life of Henry C. May, inventor. May decided to teach the robot to shoot a revolver. The mechanical man learned more quickly than May had expected and shot his master in the head. May will recover from the wound. "Catering for cats" is Shanghai's latest industry. Approximately 3000 cats are now being served daily with special mealß by a number of restaurants started solely for this purpose. Breakfasts, luncheons and dinners are taken in special containers by messengers to the homes of their "customers," whose owners may choose the menus in advance.

Mr. Howard Miller, aged 33, is seeking treatment in Kansas City General Hospital because his appetite is "too big" for a man of nine-stone-four. Seeking correction of the trouble,-he told doctors that he had consumed in one day: "Eight steaks- two plates of stew, 28 slices of bread, nine eggs, two dishes of peaches, twelve pieces of pie and a dozen cups of coffee."

Women in Turkey between the apes of lIS anil GO will be forced to work as i navvies on the roads for a week a year in future unless they pay six Turkish pounds' (about £1 sterling) annually as exemption tax. This tax has hitherto been collected only from men. In the programme now prepared by the Istanbul Government for the construction or repair of roads, 230 miles have been set aside especially for those men and women who do not pay their tax in time. By dancing a Highland fling on her 100 th birthday, Mrs. Mary Atkinson, a native of Scotland, "flabbergasted" the guests gathered at her birthday party in Toronto, Canada. Mrs. Atkinson went to Canada from Edinburgh more than 70 years ago. She earned her own living until she was 90, but now she spends most of her time sitting at the window of her home watching the passers-by. She has promised to dance another reel on her 101 st birthday next year.. A man in a remote village in Assam, India, owes his life to his amazing presence of mind. Attacked by a savage leopard, he seized the beast's tongue and pulled hard. The leopard struggled to get free, but the man held on to its tongue and yelled for help. His son, a youth of 18, rushed to the rescue and killed the leopard with his knife. Only then did his father let go of the tongue. When mor Sural, the loopnrcl was found to be nearly ; in !:>:>y-!i.