RANDOM REMINDER

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30591, 6 November 1964, Page 22

RANDOM REMINDER

BEDSIDE MANNER

One of the more becoming pastimes of well brought - up women is needlework. There is something fascinating about the delicate plying of needle and thread, even when it is devoted to such mundane tasks as putting a patch in a youngster’s pants. On a higher level, there are artistic goings-on like petit point, and tapestry, and few women, so engaged, fail to win attention and admiration. Getting at the sump of the car doesn’t really compare with it, for aesthetic appeal. Not always, however, do women win the rewards they deserve. We know of one and let it be said, from the outset, that she is not only good to look at, but conforms very hand-

somely to the accepted contours of an attractive woman who was very busy indeed sewing for a Good Cause. Until, on one unhappy evening, she sat on a needle. At least she thought she had; she had every reason to believe that was what had happened. For several days, there was a sharp reminder of the accident, and the discomfort was so lasting that she decided to go to a doctor. This is a delicate business to describe: but the doctor came to the conclusion that she should have an X-ray examination. Which is how she came to be prostrate on a hospital bed, certainly flanked by curtains, but with a male patient on either side of her, and a doctor com-

Ing through the door, asking cheerfully and in a very loud voice of the whereabouts of the woman who had a needle in . well, he made it painfully clear what he meant, even if it was not the sort of bedside language to which she was accustomed.

But she owned up, and had her X-ray, and it was determined that a needle or something was where the doctor had supposed it was. Which took her to another table, and a doctor intent on remedying the situation. Now remembering that the patient has a very excellent figure (see paragraph two) was it really necessary for him to observe, as one of those usual pleasantries, that it was like looking for a needle in a hay-stack?