RANDOM REMINDER

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31770, 29 August 1968, Page 14

RANDOM REMINDER

FIRST THINGS FIRST

Food is an absorbing interest for some, a matter of indifference to others, but ever since Adam sank his teeth into that apple, the urge to acquire food and meet the needs of the appetite has driven men on to the heights and the depths. Somewhere round about the beginning, or at least 140,000,000 years ago, it seems that the staple diet was the dinosaur. Some of the prehistoric beasts, like the Diplocodus, were 87ft long and 15ft high. By the time a man had got through 80ft of it, there is reason to suspect that the last 7ft would have been even higher. Today, with at least a veneer of civilisation on him, a man spends his

time working madly so he can afford a wife to get his food for him; or if he is a bachelor, there are shops to provide him with fare for the gourmet. But the basic need to find food remains. . . . They were on a business trip to North Canterbury, and they went down the main street of the country town looking for a dining room. At 12.25 p.m. precisely—a very proper time to be thinking of lunch—they found a tea rooms. The menu in the window was studied carefully, and it was of .sufficiently high quality to have them practically slavering as they went to the door. It was stuck, so they gave it a gentle push. It would not budge. A little impa-

tiently, they rattled the door-handle. They could see, inside, a face which had just taken delivery of a large forkful of steak—a face which looked their way with an expression of some disfavour. They rattled the door again, and the clearly disgruntled diner rose to his feet, left with obvious reluctance the plate of steak, eggs and chips, and came to the door. He flung it open a quarter of an inch and asked what they wanted. They said they were looking for a meal. He apologised somewhat curtly, explaining that he was the proprietor, and that the place was closed for lunch. With which he shut the door on their faces and went back to attend to his own.