Reporter's Diary

Press, 14 December 1977, Page 2

Reporter's Diary

On the level AN AUCTION of a deceased neighbour’s effects arouses a lot of local interest. One man in a provincial town has reason to remember one auction in

particular. He stood there, disinterested, as various carpenter’s tools went under the hammer. “One spirit level,” said the auctioneer. The man was not interested; after all, he had one. Then he remembered that he had not seen it for some time. What had he done with it? Oh yes, he had lent it to his neighbour, who was now deceased. “Sold,” said the auctioneer. “That’s my level that has just been sold,” the man remarked to a companion. The friend, who had started the bidding on the level, sidled away—thankful that his bid was unsuccessful. Tranquil dogs POSTIES can now do their rounds in safety, thanks to a drug that is claimed to calm the more unseemly drives of dogs and cats. The foil-packed pills are said to quell the noisy night-time courting of cats, and the found barking of restless dogs. The pills, called “Ovarid” were originally intended as a birth-control measure for female dogs. They have been on the market for a few years now, and lots of other clinical uses have turned up. When fed to male dogs, the pill “shuts them up, and stops them from wandering and terri-tory-marking,” says Mr Warren Banks, an official of the Palmerston North firm marketing the drug. “On-the-pill” dogs don’t bite the postman, and the dog or cat which has been too possessive about his bit of territory' stops the embarrassing habit of urinating on the wheels of parked cars, it is said. Too pat TWO SMALL brothers arrived home from Thorrington School one day during the recent wet spell liberally splattered with mud. Their mother demanded to know how they had got that way, suspecting they had deliberately stomped through the puddles on a nearby building site. The oldest boy, aged seven, replied with a well-contrived tale about how be had been walking along reading a book, and had stepped into a big muddy puddle without even noticing it. The mother was almost convinced, until the younger boy gave the show away by chipping in with “And I was reading the same book.” Resourceful A YOUNG woman in a

central Christchurch flat is an enthusiastic but inexperienced cook, and has an occasional emergency in the kitchen. The other day she popped her casserole into the oven at "pre-heat” to toast the breadcrumbs on the top. Somehow she forgot to turn off the “pre-heat” grill when she turned on the oven to cook the casserole in earnest; and when she took it out, the breadcrumbs were incinerated and giving off clouds of smoke. Being relatively new to cooking, she is prepared to be an innovator, and was quite undismayed at what would have been a disaster to many others. She simply went to the hall cupboard, brought back the vacuum cleaner, and whisked the top centimetre of black crumps to reveal a golden brown layer underneath.

Dairy camels A MILKING parlour for rhe royal camel herd at Riyadh, in Saudi Arabia is being designed by a firm of British dairy technologists. It will be much the same as the modern steel and concrete milking sheds of New Zealand dairyfarmers, except that the milker will not have to work from a hole in the ground as in many modern sheds. Camels are taller, and much more accessible. But he will have to be protected by steel sheeting from the gnashing teeth and flailing feet of his ill-tempered charges. The New Zealand Dairy Board need not worry’ too much. A contented came! produces only about half as much milk a year as a dairy’ cow. Travel scheme YOUNG people who throw in their jobs to make trips overseas usually have to face the fact that they

have no guarantee of being taken on again when they return, and even if they get back, their jobs, they might have to start from scratch again. An Australian company has removed these risks for its young employees by incorporating provision for travel into its career structure. According to an Australian productivity publication, Vickers Ruwolt has a one year leave-of-absence scheme which allows employees to take a year’s leave and rejoin the company without losing any service privileges. Close to home THE WORST injurysuffered in the cricket matches played at Hospital Comer on Saturday happened to Dr Ross Bailey, a renal specialist, playing for Hospital against East-Shirley in the President’s grade. Dr Bailey suffered a cut above the left eye when trying to sweep a ball, and was escorted to the Christchurch Hospital across the way to have the cut stitched up. He was sharing a productive partnership with Dr Peter Joyce when the mishap occurred. Dr Bailey returned to Hospital Corner wearing dark glasses, and Dr Joyce went on to score a century. Market forces IF MONEY is so tight, how is it that competition in the marketplace does not force down retail prices? A rare example of this desirable effect noticed recently, is the price of one line of Christmas cards. A girl who bought a packet of 10 cards for 49c last Christmas (and still has the packet) noticed a similar pack of cards for sale in Christchurch this week for 45c. —Garry Arthur