Reporter’s diary

Press, 7 May 1983, Page 2

Reporter’s diary

Opportunist

YESTERDAY being such a fine, warm day for the month of May in Christchurch, a woman colleague thought it would be a lovely idea to meet her husband for lunch. So she rang her husband’s workplace, was put through to his extension, and suggested going somewhere for a nice lunch. There was a long silence on the other end of the telephone before a male voice replied: "Great idea — if you’re paying.”. It was not her husband.

Cleaner act MASSEY University’s first “non-grubby” capping magazine went on sale in Christchurch. yesterday. Nine hundred copies of “Masskerade” were brought down from the North Island, and according to a spokesman they are selling very well. The 1983 “Masskerade” contains none of the lavatory humour which has brought some capping magazines under heavy fire in recent years, and the standard of art work is much better than most. The magazine is based on “Monty Python-style” humour, with some original treatment of serious subjects: “This is what happens (big splotch) to a warm, fat, cuddly baby when it strikes a windscreen at 80km/h. Strap your bumble-bee in FIRMLY!” Golden souvenir PERFORMERS in the “Civic Memories” show at the Theatre Royal this week-end will each be given a golden souvenir spoon

after the last performance tomorrow evening. The show is being held to raise money for more work on the theatre, and the spoons will be presented by the Friends of the Theatre Royal, Christchurch (Inc.). More than 100 veteran artists who appeared at the old Civic Theatre in Christchurch between 1939 and 1950 will take part in the show. Conned “THE TIMES” Diary tells the story of one of the newspaper’s reporters who was in Berlin in 1945, and retrieved a painting signed by Adolf Hitler, from the ruins of the Fuhrer’s bunker. He took it, and on his way out met an American sergeant whose prize was cutlery marked “A.H.” They compared booty and the sergeant so coveted the painting that “The Times” man, judging the spoons and forks to be the better bet, agreed to swap. A few days later he found outjhat the cutlerlihad come from the Adlon Hotel.

Facelift A PLANNED SUS2.S million landscaping contract will transform the busy central terminal of Los Angeles International Airport into a showcase for the semi-tropi-cal botanical beauty of southern California. The ingredients include a mixture of 1300 trees and 19,000 other plants, including a variety of palms, coral trees, Japanese camellias, birds of paradise, Chinese hibiscus, hedges and a garden of multi-coloured Los Angeles roses. Red trumpet vines will line the edge of the airport’s new second level roadway. Personal choice THE CHRISTCHURCH City Council’s planning committee was talking about fortified gang houses this week. Cr Matthew Glubb said one had to remember that there was nothing intrinsically wrong with fortified houses. Some could belong to people who were just cranky or eccentric. “There are plenty down Fendalton Road, I’ve noticed,” said Cr Don Rawlands. *