RANDOM REMINDER

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30630, 22 December 1964, Page 25

RANDOM REMINDER

THROUGH THE GLASS, DARKLY.

There will be a general twinge of sympathy with Mrs A. Ryan, a Sydney housewife who says she is being forced out of her home by empty beer bottles. She told reporters she could not get rid of the bottles. The dustman had refused to take them because it did not come under his contract, and the local council laughed when she said she had 1000 of the bottles. So there she is, surrounded by bottles, and. perhaps, being forced to bolster her drooping spirits by opening a few more. Mrs Ryan probably has the situation well in hand, but there would be some, similarly placed, whose collection of empties would increase at the sort

of steady rate which when plotted makes a dramatically upswept curve. But all this is doing nothing to assist her in her problem. Perhaps she could convert the bottles into something useful, like a home-brewing plant Bottles have been used for building most effectively in the past. She wouldn’t care, perhaps, to start making sailing ships to put into the bottles, although it would probably earn a little beer money. The frightful prospect is that she will some day soon reach a point of no return, where the bottles become so numerous nothing can be done with them, and they simply take over. Dr. Who and his companions have faced

less frightening situations. It brings to mind the Christchurch man. known for his foundness for beer, and who liked to buy it in those half-gallon flagons. When they are returned empty, they are worth 2s each, and one day he loaded his car with his flagons and set off to cash in on them. After al! the unloading and counting at an hotel, it was found he had brought in 90. or approximately enough to buy 27 more. The barman commented on the large number. Oh, the customer said, I have 10 more at home. Then why, the barman asked, didn’t you bring them all in. Bring in 100? the customer said. You’d have thought I was an alcoholic.