Reporter’s Diary

Press, 4 November 1978, Page 2

Reporter’s Diary

Hard hats PEGPLE who say hard hats are too heavy or too hot are wrong, according to an article in the “Twizel Chronicle.” Safety specialists say that a hard hat is cooler than a cloth cap or a felt hat. A test carried out in Australia in 38deg, Celsius showed that the inside temperatures of a cloth or felt hat were only Ideg cooler than the prevailing outside temperature. Yet the inside temperatures of hard hats varied from 2deg to sdeg cooler. The difference is caused by the extra air space inside the hard hat

as well as the reflection from the outside surface. And the average weight of a hard hat is 397 g which, the experts say, is not too heavy for solid protection. Hut of style? THE FAMILIAR sight of Canterbury cricket teams taking the field in the trad i t i o n a 1 red-and-black hooped cap might soon be a thing of the past — and not as a result of the increasing popularity of floppy towling hats. Local manufacturers no longer produce the hooped colour designs and extensive inquiries by the Canterbury

Cricket Association suggest that this is a national trend. It might well be that Canterbury will have to follow the lead of other districts and send its representatives out in onecolour caps with the provincial monogram. If anyone knows of someone who still produces the hooped caps, the Cricket Association would like to hear from you. I.Diif! locks A MODERN, raven-haired version of Rapunzel was spotted by a photographer of “The Press” in Christchurch this week. Many a

time we have heard of women with hair flowing down their backs as far as their derriere, but there surely cannot be many women in New Zealand whose hair reaches below this point.

Empty centre WHILE travelling on the West Coast some time

ago, a reader tells us, he and his wife were highly amused by a notice on a building that had small, slatted windows. It was situated at the rear of a hotel, and in enormous letters, the wording on the sign said: “Used beer department.” Directory service A CHRISTCHURCH family gathered together recently to telephone a relative in England, so that they could all wish her a happy birthday. But when the telephone was answered at the England end, it turned out to be the wrong number. Not to be deterred, however, the family member making the call asked the stranger at the other end if she would mind looking up their relative in the telephone directory and giving them the correct number. The stranger obliged — and the birthday call was then nade. ()pen day

KEEN gardeners in Christchurch hope for a fine day on Sunday so that they will be able to see rhododendrons and azaleas in all their glory at the open day at 87 Ham Road. The open day is organised by the Ham Garden Club every year, when the Ham Road gardens, part of the University of Canterbury, are opened up to the public. Admission is by a silver coin, the proceeds being divided evenly between the university and the Canterbury ’ Horticultural Society. Checkmate! A READER who saw the cryptic heading mentioned in yesterday’s “Diary” was remainded of an equally clever one he remembers seeing in a North Island newspaper two years ago. It was atop a story about a Sir Somebody-or-other in England, he says, who had been taken to court on a charge of possessing pornographic literature and as a result of the hearing, his books had been confiscated. The heading above the story said: “Queen takes knight’s porn.” —Felicity Price