Reporter's Diary

Press, 28 May 1980, Page 2

Reporter's Diary

Hot tips

WHILE journalists are on strike in Sydney and Melbourne, newspaper executives have been producing the dailies. At the “Melbourne Age,” with no racing reporters to forecast the likely bets at the Caulfield races that week, an anonymous and amazingly successful tipster took their place. Anyone ■ taking his picks would have made a mint. He picked the first five winners, the extra double, the two on-course qui-

•nellas, and four on-course doubles. His identity was revealed a few days later as the managing director of the newspaper group of which the “Age” is a part, and who claims to like to have “the odd bet on the horses.” But he is not, he says, looking for a job in the paper’s racing department.

Cheer up! A BAN on the social promotion of children at school, handing the Olympic Games back to the Greeks, and free contraceptives for all are the main platforms of the Cheer Up Party’s policy. The party’s candidate for the Northern Maori byelection is Mr Wallace Hetaraka, aged 29, a carver and craft, shop owner. He also wants simple literacy tests for children entering intermediate schools, two-chan-nel television coverage in Northland, and a cut in the 40 per cent sales tax on records and cassettes. Mr Hetaraka does not think he will win the byelection on June 7, but he smiles a lot and exudes cheerfulness,. . essential, characteristics of any Cheer Up Party member. .

Herbs EVERYTHING you always wanted to know about herbs but were too afraid to ask will be revealed at a special herb session on Thursday afternoon when Mrs Gillian Polson, a well known herb grower, will give a talk and answer questions about herbs at the Capper Press bookshop at 196 Hereford Street. Her talk will be part of the bookshop’s herb display to promote a new publication about herbs and herbal remedies. The display of things herbal has been put on by Thyme Cottage, and includes hand-made herbsmelling soaps, herbal ointments and cosmetics, pot pourri and herb plants. During the day, the bookshop will serve tea, with a choice of lemon verbena, lemon balm, camomile, and peppermint. . Froggy icent a’icoping PERFORMING artists sometimes get some un- „ usual perks. The Theatri-. cal Explosions group, employed under the Outreach programme of the Robert McDougall Art Gallery, has been discovering some of them. The group visited the Nuffield Kindergarten,

in North New Brighton, to perform “Puddlezap the Magic Frog” recently, and was very warmly received by the pre-schoolers — so warmly, in fact, that one small girl interrupted the performance by shouting that she wanted to kiss the frog. And she did so, planting a big kiss right in the centre of the large frog mask, thereby starting off a procession of other children wanting to do likewise. The frog’s warning about what happened to people who kissed frogs did not deter anyone. Then, in the second act, the same child proclaimed she wanted to hug the frog. Once again, a little procession trooped up to hug the frog, who was, by this time, quite overcome with all the affection coming his way. Riotous production? ACTORS in the University of Canterbury Drama Society’s production of Roger Hall’s comedy, “State of the Play,” are amused, and a little apprehensive about the wording on the Ngaio Marsh Theatre’s fire curtain. The play will open at the theatre on Saturday evening and will run : for a week, and is being pro-

duced by the well known Christchurch actress, Elizabeth Moody, who is making her debut as a producer. It is also the first time that Roger Hall’s new play has been staged in Christchurch. The fire curtain that has got them all wondering, says: “The Ngaio Marsh Theatre has installed this curtain for the protection of patrons in the event of fire and for the protection of performers in the event of a riot.” 111-fated name? KELSO, the small town in West Otago that has recurring problems with the severe flooding from the nearby Pomahaka River, has a counterpart in the United States. In Washington state, there is also a small town called Kelso which hasn’t been having much luck lately, either. Washington’s Kelso is not too far from Mount St Helens, the volcanic mountain that blew its top recently, and, like many other . towns near the mountain, it has been covered with volcanic ash and has lost its electricity supply.