RANDOM NOTES

Dominion, Volume 26, Issue 218, 10 June 1933, Page 10

RANDOM NOTES

Sidelights on Current Events LOCAL AND GENERAL (By Kickshaws.) According to a speaker, Mr. Forbes is an able skipper. He’ll ba taking up poi dancing next. * * A magazine, it is reported, has exploded in Japan. Our censors ban that sort long before it does any harm. A freak rabbit-skin that resembles a rabbit has been found at Dunedin. The fur trade, we understand, declares that it must squash the skin into a cony. • ♦ • “Here is another coincidence to add to your already long list,” adds “Still Another Coincidence,” Wellington, “borne years ago at a well-known boarding house in Wellington, three people by the name of Mustard, Pepper and Salt sat at the same table and were aptly culled 'The Cruet."’ "While I was at the Wellington Technical College some years ago, two class mates were named Epsom and Salt, says "Q. ’Mark,” Wellington. Space considerations make it necessary to close this subject —it has been running nearly a month. —Kickshaws. » * » Although doctors say that Hans Schliter, aged 20, of Belgrade, mentioned in a corner of the news yesterday, will be 9ft. high before he stops growing, the fact remains that there are others be can look up to. After all, was not Og, King of Bashan, so tall that he slept in a bed nearly 17 feet long? While the famous Goliath, who derived so much publicity owing to his unfortunate meeting with David, is said to have beeu over 10ft. high. In more recent times we have a young man named John Middleton, who lived in the days of Queen Elizabeth or thereabouts, whose height was Oft. 3in. The palm of his hand was nearly 91n. across. In quite recent times we have a Russian named Machnow, who. at the aged of 23 years was Oft. bin., weighed 32 stone, was 60in. round the chest and boasted boots two feet long. The remarkable thing about these giants, if we make one or two exceptions, is that they have been famous for their height, not for their great strength. The world’s strong men are made of‘shorter Stuff. _ w ;

For some reason most of us have a secret desire to be giants. But this condition carries with it drawbacks so numerous that life must at tiiues be somewhat of a trial. lor one thing, it must require considerable practice to slep in hotel beds invariably a couple of feet too short, it is said that when Machnow, the 9ft. Russian giant, mentioned in the previous naragraph. crossed the English Channel he had to spend the whole time on deck because he would not fit below. Moreover, from a catering point of view, a giant Is a most undesirable person to have about the house. Machnow’s appetite, for example, was in proportion to his bulk. For breakfast he required two quarts of milk, a dozen eggs, aud a couple of quartern loaves. For lunch be tossed down three pounds of meat, five pounds of potatoes, and half a gallon of beer. While in the evening he enjoyed a light meal consisting of 15 eggs, three pounds of bread and butter, and a quart of tea. The one advantage of his great height was that after his evening meal he could take a stroll down the street and light his cigarette at a street lamp.

The great rivers of air that weather experts are stated to be investigating at the Science Congress have been known to seamen ever since the first venturesome sailing boat crossed the equator. If it were not for the land, wind and presumably the weather of the world would be comparatively simple propositions. At any rate over great expanses of water these rivers of air flow with a regularity that must be soothing to weather experts, especially in latitudes 40N and 8 where a westerly wind blows incessantly. Heated air rising at the equator sucks in air from north and south, thereby producing the trade winds. The sucked-in air flows north and south at high altitudes, and comes down again to earth just beyond the "horse” latitudes, roughly at 30 degrees latitude. At the equator we get the doldrums where little wind blows. Owing to the rotation of the earth the upper winds ure actually diverted from a true north and south direction. Unfortunately this delightfully simple system goes all to pieces where land masses are involved. Hence our weather prophets.

In Asia the seasonal differences ot heat aud cold are so great that the simple rivers of air of the world break up so completely that the wind blows from land to sea in winter and from sea to land in summer. Hence the famous monsoons. Similar complications occur on the East coast of Africa, the north coasts of Australia and in Texas, U.S.A In addiiion to these winds we have minor irregularities that have dislocated even more the systems of winds in the world, lu Siberia they have the "buran.” a cold north wind : the “sirocco” in the Mediterranean, a hot south wind, while the "fohn” of Sw.tzerland and the "Chinook” of the Rockies are w.nds that olow from mountain regions into lower valleys, becoming heated by compression during the descent. Last, but not least, we must not omit our famous southerlies, huge rivers of air some five miles high that give a delightful tang to the Wellington climate.

Some idea of the ramifications of the gangster business in America, mentioned in this column, may be had from the fact that the leaders still levy toll on the average man from the cradle to the grave—from babies' milk to funeral coaches. In New York it is asserted that gangsters 1 levy a tribute of a penny halfpenny on every hundredweight of freight delivered in the city. A conservative estimate of the income from this alone works out at £1.000.000 a year. Every pier ar.d every railway station is said to be under gangster domination. The fact that gans'er tentacles have reached the milk trade has been known for some time. Moreover, toll is levied on every funeral coach bound for the local cemeteries. New York laundries and cleaning businesses at one time paid toll to the gangsters to the tune of £250.000 a year. The result so far as customers were concerned was a rise in the cyst of cleaning clothes from 4/- to 5/-. There is even a levy on the unemployed. There was also a protective tariff for miniature golf courses of £4 a week. Now that prohibition has ended. gansters will have either to go out of business, like Capone, or find new fields in which to recoup. If all the wor'd Should, in a pet of temperance, feed on pulse, Drink the clear stream, and nothing wear but frieze, Th’ All-giver would be nnthanked, would be unpraised. —Milton.