Reporter’s diary

Press, 21 February 1987, Page 2

Reporter’s diary

Cool as a ...

SCIENTISTS in China who have just unveiiled a new line of cosmetics made from cucumbers may not be on to anything especially new. A pert booklet, confidently named “The Complete Cucumber,” traces the history of this venerable plant: Pliny the Elder (A.D. 27 to 79) wrote of the many virtues and uses of the cucumber; Tiberius, the Roman Emperor (A.D. 14 to 37), had a cucumber with every meal; and the Romans even devised plant holders for the cycymbers which they could wheel to catch the maximum sun. The booklet does not say when cucumber skins and flesh were first used as a prevention for sunburn and for moisturising the face, but it does suggest several ways in which the vegetable can be used as a cosmetic. Keeping tabs WE MAY HAVE been on the wrong tack with an item some weeks ago in which a reader complained that a new shirt had an unusual number of decorative tags apparently

hiding tiny defects in the • material. Not so, says a reader who works at a clothing factory. The "defects,” she savs, are intentional “drill holes” marked by the position of the tags. Look closely and. you will find drill holes at pockets, seams, darts — wherever the machinist needs some form of mark to make sure the garment is sewn together properly. We live and learn. Dunmore Medal ISABEL OLLIVIER’S research into the view of early New Zealand by French ships and French explorers (such as de Surville, Marion du Fresne, Duperry, d’Entrecasteaux) has earned her the award of the John Dunmore Medal. The Alliances Francaises of New Zealand announced the award for Isabel Ollivier’s five-volume work, “Early Eyewitness Accounts of Maori Life.” The prize is awarded annually for contributions to the knowledge or understanding of the part played by the French people or the French language in the development of the Pacific. Isabel Ollivier is a

graduate of the University of Auckland, now living in Paris.

\ Square root 'CHRISTCHURCH’S Floral Festival, beginning on February 27, is in commemoration of those admirable creations, lowers. But for those of us klutzes who cannot arrange a single rose, let alone a vase full of bloomers, thoughts on recalcitrant flowers are usually less than kind. However, there is hope with British invention of “arranging by numbers,” a I similar exercise to painting by numbers. Untrained flower arrangers cay,follow designs by inserting flowers stalk by stalk into numbered slots on fa holder provided in a kit;

Grow ’n’ glow ANOTHER weird appearance on the botanical scene is a tobacco plant which glows in the dark. Scientists at the University of Califoimia, Berkeley, researching the genetic structure of plants, have managed to transplant into the tobacco plants the genes h

which allow fireflies 'to light up. The effect is an eerie greenish glow, according to the report' on the experiment in “Which” magazine. Although the practical value of flowers that shine in the dark is not immediately obvious, the magazine has one suggestion: “No doubt some bright spark will develop selfilluminating Christmas trees.” Saint’s life THE WORLD Council of Churches magazine; “One World,” quotes a. report on the beatification recently of Father Titus Brandsma, a Dutch priest killed by the Nazis in Dachau in July, 1942. Brandsma founded a Catholic newspaper, wrote hundreds of articles for periodicals, and taught philosophy at university, level. He was arrested by the Gestapo while serving as information secretary to the Dutch bishpps. The report > notes that Brandsma’s beatification marks “the first time that the Church publicly acknowledges a journalist to have led a saintly life.” —Jenny Feltham