Reporter’s diary

Press, 8 October 1987, Page 2

Reporter’s diary

Kiwis... EWAN McDonald, in Frankfurt, says that a former Otorohanga couple are causing the German city to wonder about New Zealanders. The pair are in show business — but they are hardly ever seen. They have a youngster, but no-one knows his/her/

its name because they don’t know what sex he/ she/it is. And their expensive taste in food is downright embarrassing to their hosts. In fact, it is a family of kiwis, given by the Otorohanga Zoological Society three years ago. The offspring is the only kiwi hatched by a European zoo.

...in captivity FRANKFURT is lucky to have a kiwi chick. The Otorohanga Zoological Society gave four birds to two German zoos — two to Stuttgart and two to Frankfurt When the kiwis showed no signs of breeding after two years, Frankfurt twigged that it

had the two males and Stuttgart had the two females. A swap was arranged. Frankfurt’s chick was hatched on March 24, but is not yet allowed to come out to play. Plot thickens PAPARUA County councillors are worried about the many cemeteries under their control. Besides, wailed one councillor at a meeting this week, the cemeteries are too scattered. The chairman, J. Y. Pethig, wisely highlighted the problem: “You would have some difficulty shifting them closer together.” Melon-folly translated A READER suggests that the item entitled "Melonfolly, ’’ in the diary this week, about accidents caused by slipping on melon rinds, needed translating. He recalled a friend Who was born in Shanghai, who said that melon rind was a euphemism for a condom, which explains why they were so often discarded by young lovers. Meter money-making WHERE , -do parking meters go when they get old? In -the case of those made redundant by inflation at Christchurch International Airport, they are sold. One has come out of

retirement to spend a few useful twilight years in a nursery gobbling five and ten cent pieces in aid of the National Heart Foundation. This week is National Heart week, but the owners of Sunny Pereiras Nursery, Ron and Dora Bell, will keep the parking meter permanently collecting among the gnomes and polyanthus. Multi-choice A VISITOR to Papanui last week was relieved to find the public toilets near the library but he was nonplussed to find no trace of the usual labels above, or beside, the doorways. He was standing outside, unsure which entrance to use, when two obviously satisfied customers emerged, one from each. His problem remained unsolved. Both were men. First things first OUT of the mouths of babes and politicians. A reader, nearly weeping at the abuse of English, begged someone to take up cudgels against the world “prioritise," which was used by the member of Parliament for Hobson, Mr Ross Meurant, in yesterday’s paper. “Prioritise” takes first prize as the most hideous fabrication in the English language, argues the reader. It certainly stretcherises the imagination... —Jenny Felthdm.