Reporter’s diary

Press, 8 April 1988, Page 2

Reporter’s diary

turnabout j WHAT do old Post Offices do when they die?, Those that were closed on February 5 are discovering a yariety of new careers. One is a flourishing fruit vegetable shop) in IfJorthcote Road, its bright exterior a far cry from regulation Post Office colour co-ordination. Several have become outlets for arts and crafts, vyhile someone wants to tufn a Christchurch office irjto a cake shop, from wliich they can also demonstrate pastry cooking and cake (iecorating. Two offices ard used for very | different purposes: one |is a church and the other a T.A.B. ;

I i I Better believe it TELEPHONE answering machines usually | tell callers that the owner is unable to come to the phone — which often, but not always, means that ho-one is home. Problem: how do you stop buiiglars using the same tips to ply their trade? One recorded message croons smugly: l“There’s no-one here but ithe dogs ...” Unaromatic, but romantic i“TERRAE Vitae,” an Italian agricultural journal, has announced the j invention of a pongless ‘ garlic. The inventor is I Japanese, one Kotarjo Sa-! kai, who maintains the ‘ taste remains, whilp the smell disappears. 7After eating my garlic you can kiss anyone you like,” he claims. Sakai is| not| revealing the finer details; of his method, whiih in-

volves dipping bulbs of garlic in a cauldron of magnesium, calcium and various plant extracts for a I number of hours. The I l

I Americans are enraptured by)the idea and they have already ordered 10 tonnes a month of [Sakai’s garlic bulbs. i I : : i I

Doss-house connection A NIGHT in an Australian jail costs) almost as much as a night spent in a fivestar hotel. Daily jail accommodations cost taxpayers [about sAustlOO and may go as high [ as $4OO for jmaximum security prisoners. Three ; of Melbourne’s plushest hotels have nightly rates of $llO, $l2O, and $135. At that rate why are not more tourists heaving bricks through windows? Smell of success A PAIR of sniffer hounds employed by the Texas police to) find drugs managed to Inose out $12,000 worth of cannabis. But fame has its price. Rocky and Barco’s success has resulted ) in them being placed on a Mafia hit-list with a $60,000 price on their paws. They have been given police protection.

Shopweightlifting? SIGN sem in a shop that specialists in wrought ironware reads: “Shoplifters here will get a hernia.”