Reporter’s diary

Press, 31 October 1986, Page 2

Reporter’s diary

Handy solution

ANOTHER KIND of safe house for children was spotted by a colleague when he was in a small community in Missouri last year. Marceline, with a population of about only 2000, was proud of a low crime rate and citizens were worried when a prowler was noticed hanging about at a local school. A “helping hands” programme was installed in much the same way as the safe houses, with clear signs, showing red hands, positioned at the gateway and on the house. Getting the bird EXCUSES FOR lateness at school have developed as an art form since our day. Readers have quoted some brazen examples from their offspring — including one which merely said: “I just don’t want to go to school any ■way.” But one which appealed for innocence was “chasing my bird.” As told by his relative in Kaiapoi, the 14-year-old culprit really had been chasing his bird. The bird was a pet waxeye, called George, which had been reared from a fledging and adopted as part of the family. On the morning concerned George escaped while being fed, so son, accompanied by mother in dressing gown, and armed with a net in one . hand and a stool in the other, raced from tree to tree in an effort to snaffle the blighter. They ended up two blocks away, on a busy highway, and birdless. Later that day they returned to find the waxeye back in his cage, playing host to two other waxeyes, which were later released. The teacher probably enjoyed this yarn better than the conventional, "My alarm didn’t go off.” Debate

TWENTY-EIGHT schools will be debating the motion “That conformity is the straitjacket of society” in “The Press” secondary schools’ debating contest during the week-end. All the debates

will be held at Avonside Girls’ High School. The preliminary round will begin at 6.30 p.m. this evening. Resolved to win THE SQUASH - KING, Jahangir Khan, is considered to be an extraordinary sportsman. He dominates his sport so utterly that he has not even seemed threatened, let alone actually beaten, in a game of squash since 1981. Even more extraordinary is to discover that the same man, whom some commentators label as the greatest sportsman in the world, was the runt of the litter, so to speak. In his book, “Winning Squash,” he wrote: “I was the youngest, smallest, feeblest, and sickest of the family ... I had two hernia operations by the age of 12, but all that did was to strengthen my determination.”

A.D.A.R.D.S. interest

ORGANISERS OF the first national conference on Alzheimer’s disease to be held in Christchurch this week-end have been taken aback — but delighted — with the number of people. who have registered for the conference. They were expecting about 150. So far 300 havejisigned up. The pub-

licity officer for Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Disorders Society (A.D.A.R.D.S.) in Canterbury, Mrs Caroline Oliver, said that late enrolments from people who care for sufferers from dementia would still be accepted. Neatly put TO HELP publicise its concerns, A.D.A.R.D.S. has come up with a catchphrase bumper sticker which gently points out one of the central problems of Alzheimer’s disease — loss of memory. It says: “Don’t forget those who can’t remember.”

Wonderful subject A PHOTOGRAPH of Alice Liddell, the girl who was the inspiration for Lewis Carroll’s “Alice in Wonderland” is being sold by Sotheby’s today. Although it is not a photo by Carroll, but by Julia Margaret Cameron, one of the most noted Victorian snappers, it is expected to sell for up to $12,000. Prints of Alice by Carroll rarely come on the market, but the same sale today includes a group of photographs by the Oxford don-cum-children’s writer. One title — “Miss Kitchen lying on a sofa” — is expected to fetch around $lBOO.

—Jenny Feltham