Reporter’s diary

Press, 18 May 1989, Page 2

Reporter’s diary

Missing Garfield

IF your child has suddenly acquired a small rubber Garfield toy, it might be worth finding out where it came from. One such figure, which stands about scm high and holds a tennis racket, had been sitting on top of Dennis Mcllraith’s grave for 15 months after 14-year-old Dennis was killed in a road accident. When Mrs Kathryn Mcllraith went to tend his grave in the Belfast Cemetery on Mother’s Day she noticed the figurine had disappeared. Mrs Mcllraith hopes that if a child has picked up Garfield, it can be returned to her son’s grave in the new row of the old established part of the cemetery, since “Garfield would like to continue to keep Dennis company.”

Plunket logo SATURDAY’S edition of “The Press” was to have shown the Plunket Society’s new logo which was released last weekend. Gremlins occasionally conspire to make us fall flat on our face, and this was such a time. The logo has now reappeared, and (cross fingers) is pictured, in response to the large number of inquiries from people curious to see the 1990 s image of Plunket. Hot potato

SEXIST spuds? We kid you not. Desiree potatoes,

a well-known brand of potato, came under fire not for their quality, but for the advertising on the bags they come in. A Christchurch supermarket that does regular customer surveys found that the drawing and wording on the potatoes were just too much for one shopper who commented in the “How can we improve our service to you?” slot: “Boycott the Desiree potatoes because the packaging has sexist connotations.” Language... AFTER 16 years working as a telephonist, Mrs Cassandra Moar thought she had heard it all. She hadn’t. Last week She put through a collect call to Wellington. The telephone was answered “Kia ora” so she made the connection. Then she realised it had been taken by an answerphone, with a message entirely in Maori. Mrs Moar was speechless — she could not understand a word. After the message was played — and listened to in stunned silence — Mrs Moar told her caller that answerphones cannot accept collect calls and the call was finally absorbed into the Telecom network. Mrs Moar checked with her supervisor, the toll manager and with Telecom South’s public relations officer and no-one could help her. They confirmed that there is nothing to stop people putting messages in another language on their answerphones. ... barrier

ALTHOUGH she is a Maori, Mrs Moar does not speak the language yet — “but I am working on it.” The experience shattered her. "Please, whoever is responsible for programming this answer machine

completely in Maori, spare a thought for 99 per cent of Christchurch toll operators who don’t speak Maori through no fault of their own,” she says. “And have some consideration for the vast majority of New Zealanders who would otherwise love to be close to you but for the language barrier you have built. Spare a thought for our hearts too. We believe

ours are in the right place also.” Living dangerously OOOH, there’s someone looking for trouble: the owner of a car parked in Cathedral Square, with a window sticker that reads “Women are like elephants: Good to look at, but who would want to own one?” —Jenny Setchell