Reporter’s diary

Press, 24 December 1986, Page 2

Reporter’s diary

Wide awake A SOLID CITIZEN was doing his Christmas good deed — dressed in the hot, hairy, requisite Santa suit, and taking a little “ho ho ho” round a group of patients in an old people’s hospital in Ashburton. Some of the patients are more than a bit confused and conversation is, at times, tricky. “Ho ho ho,” was Father Christmas’s inspired greeting to one little old lady. “I bet you don’t know who I am?” “I know who you’re NOT,” came the very sharp reply. “Who aren’t I?” asked the bewildered, bewhiskered Santa. “You’re not Father Christmas,” said the little old lady — who wasn’t so confused after all. Bar lamb

MARKET research in Britain shows that scenes of New Zealand depicting

sheep and lambs may tend to put off potential consumers of the woolly beasties. The New Zealand Meat Producers’ Board newsletter says that forthcoming lamb promotion campaigns in Britain will concentrate on showing “idyllic pastoral scenes, with sundrenched slopes, no powerlines, no fences, and NO SHEEP ... a tall order for a photographic librarian.” Just as long as it shows an unspoiled environment from which the lambs come, minus the lambs themselves. Book rules o.k. DIRE PREDICTIONS about the effect of GST on book sales have not been fulfilled — at least for the publisher Reed Methuen. Its manager, Mr Neil Aston, said that good, nonfiction New Zealand books were selling especially well. With 71 new

books and 26 reprints, the company reports a 50 per cent increase in sales of its New Zealand list this year compared with 1985. November was the first month that book sales had topped the $1 million mark for the company. Darkness banished DECEMBER 22 was the longest day, but a perceptive reader spotted the fact that the Christchurch readings for Tuesday, December 16, on the back page allocated a generous 48 hours of sunshine to the one day. Surely that counts as the longest day on record ... Raspberry time THE ENGLISH cricketer, Mike Gatting, almost let his side down completely by sleeping in before the start of the day’s play against Victoria in Aus-

tralia recently. Although he made it just in time, he will not be allowed to forget the incident easily. As the plane carrying the England team left Melbourne for Adelaide; the stewardess followed her list of safety procedures with the request: “Would passengers please speak quietly during the flight as Mike Gatting is trying to sleep.” Punk junk AS IF THE Sight and sound of small, exhausted children being verbally pummelled into obedience in crowded shops was not already enough to boil the blood, the spectacle of a small, exhausted, creamcoloured labrador puppy being dragged, hit, and kicked by a foul-mouthed punk of dubious sex and no humanity outside “The Press” was.

Jenny Feltham