RANDOM NOTES

Dominion, Volume 26, Issue 97, 18 January 1933, Page 8

RANDOM NOTES

Sidelights on Current Events LOCAL AND GENERAL

(By

Kickshaws.)

According to Mussolini the Italians have enough to keep them busy in Italy. Listening to Mussolini for one .thing is developing into a whole time job. * * * Sir Flinders Petrie declares that one cannot understand a modern newspaper without a knowledge of ancient history. In journalism, nevertheless, dead yesterday is ancient history, while unborn to-morrow is live news. ♦ ♦ * The problem before civilisation today is whether Japan’s policy in Manchuria will prove a greater test than Britain’s leg theory in Australia. » » * The bitter controversy concerning bowling tactics that has so marred the spirit of the recent Test match is nothing new in the history of cricket. While batsmen have settled down more or less in technique ever since cricket was erieket bowling technique has always been a controversial point. In fact ever since a fast rising ball killed a Prince of Wales bowling schisms have racked the game. Nothing has been watched so carefully by umpires since then as the bowler’s deliver/. In fact, at one time, about 150 years ago,' - it was against the rules to bowl over arm at all. So bitter was the controversy that bowlers were covered with chalk to prove that their arms had not gone astray. The tendency then was to keep the arm as far from the body as possible for fear that a tell-tale chalk mark would result in a no-ball. For the bowlers were solemnly inspected after every ball. Thus originated the round-arm. * * « Upholders of under-arm bowling in cricket fought the round-arm tooth and nail. They called' it “throwingbowling.” In fact the equivalent of a Test match in 1826 was wrecked on the round-arm controversy. Nine players refused point blank to bat unless throwing-bowling was banned as unfair. It was not until 1844 that the round-arm bowler received official blessing. Provided the ball was not thrown or jerked and provided the arm was not raised above the shoulder batsmen had to put up with round-arm tactics. Nevertheless many of them considered these tactics grossly unfair, if not dangerous. After another 22 years of bitter controversy the over-arm was at last sanctioned. It must' be admitted that in those days the technique of the bowler was to bowl at the wickpt and not as to-day, at the batsman. It will be seen nevertheless that the bowling controversy, far from being something new, is as old as the game itself. . If batsmen to-day are justifiably complaining about the hard knocks that the bowlers are giving them there have been occasions when bowlers have had to receive as good as they have given. A bowler who bowled a ball to that well-known player, S. Callaway, of New South Wales, had it returned so hard that he missed the catch. ' Instead the ball struck the bowler on the head, bounced high into the air and was neatly caught by mid-on. In another case a hard bit ball bounced off the bowler's head, ricocheted off the umpire’s shoulder and was subsequently caught in the deep field. As the rule briefly states that an umpire, fortunately for him, is not a boundary, the ball is not dead after it has struck him. The only way to make cricket less dangerous is either to use a softer ball or to revert to the old-fashioned custom of playing in “toppers.”

It. is- reported that a sealion at the London Zoo has died as a result or swallowing a handkerchief. Possibly an animal stupid enough to swallow such an unappetising delicacy deserves all it gets. Nature in her wisdom has left discernment in what to swallow and what not to swallow to man alone. He systematically sets out to eat his way to the grave by absorbing indigestible food, leaving the lower animals to make the best of what conies their way. Fortunately Nature in her wisdom has kindly given the lower animals a good digestion. Even the feather that killed the fox terrier belonging to his Majesty the King might have proved innocuous had it not stuck in the animal’s windpipe.

Ostriches are proverbial for their insatiable and undiscerning greed. Even so there are limits to the objects that Nature considers suitable for assimilation. The limit was reached in the case of one ostrich after it had tucked away a film spool, three gloves, a pencil, two combs, a clock key, three collar studs, and seven coins. The promiscuous appetite on the part of the ostrich stands iu strong contrast to a certain python, a creature of one idea. Having steadily eaten its way through a blanket it got its teeth caught in its own tail. There was therefore no altefnative but to eat itself.

Snakes, of course, are indomitable eaters. Owing to the incurved shape of their teeth, once they start to ent something there is no retreat. This results at times in a sad lack of table manners. Two snakes that started to eat a rat-from opposite ends only ended the meal when the one with the larger month had eaten the other. Provided tlie "swallowee” is rescued before tlie gastric juices have had time to act, it is not in the least affected from Its, shall we say, immersion. A North American king snake live feet long was actually rescued from another only three inches shorter when, owing to the inexorable laws of mathematics. the swallower could get no further with its meal. A few minutes after the rescue bad been effected the “swallowee” was joyfully gliding after a rat as if nothing unusual had happened. It is not only snakes that have awkward appetites. For it is on record that a goat after eating five pounds by weight of old newspapers contrived to swallow a diamond worth £1096 and six ounces of dynamite. What should be done about tlie mailer was just nobody’s business.

Among tlie now words recently adopted by dictionaries in America, gangsters have supplied the words “pineapple” and “racket.’’ Slang is so inseparable to modern conversation the marvel is that these words have got into tlie dictionaries at so early a date. Usually it takes a slang word'the best part of two decades to receive official blessing. Then, in fact, it is often discovered that the word after all is so old it got left out of the dictionaries

by mistake. There was a young man named Bill Tripp. Who at Bowls always wanted to Ski]i: One day lie went sailing, but was felleii with a paling, For insisting on skipping the ship! —JAW