RANDOM NOTES

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 226, 20 June 1936, Page 8

RANDOM NOTES

Sidelights on Current

Events

(By

Kickshaws.)

This seedsmen business at Wimbled' a may .not read sense, but it looks like turning the place into a nursery garde a.

The strike situation in France is th t although the stay-in strikers are all o .t they are nearly all in the stay-in, a:.4 will be all out until they are all-in.

It is claimed that the obvious place for economies is the D.Com courr;. On the other hand the bewildered pubic finds the W.P.B. course the best.

Hats a foot high and baby bonne's may have added a striking touch ;o Ascot, as well as signed dresses and tie like. There does not seem, however, ! o be any reliable method of foretell)' g the why and wherefore of fashions. Admittedly there is nothing fasluonal e that has not been tried before somewhere in the world. When, however, one tries to piece together any definite trend in fashions it becomes apparent that there is no trend at all. The trend of our present civilisation is to comm t suicide as rapidly as possible. The sta Is truth is that fashions, however, ha . e not even this trend in view. Mathen: iticians may calculate where a star s going to, and even when it will get the: n They can delineate the years, and t> 11 us by mathematics where we are go!: ? and how fast. But no mathematics can tell us where the fashions are going—how fast is left to our eyes.

When one starts to attempt to find unanimity in women’s fashions the tack must be given up as hopeless, becau.-o no two communities of women ever thin i alike. There is a brisk demand f r accentuated eyelashes among Hollywc d enthusiasts and others, but this fash! n is countered by the fact that certs.n Brazilian tribes set no store by eyelashes at all. The girls pull them cut by the roots. Anything in the natu e of a scar is considered a blemish < a the giris of Europe, and the rest of t. a so-called civilised world. So: e African girls, on the otb r hand, do not consider that th< y are good-looking unless their fac s are slashed with scars. In fact, th y slash their faces and rub in paint u order to acquire a beautiful series -£ raised sears. We do not consider ov< rplumpness an asset in women, but. the a are countries where the motto is t;;8 fatter the better. In those count ri s girls grow so fat they can hardly stan IIn our circles we talk about two love y blue eyes, but even this is not a standard fashion. The Papuans consid r eves of the same colour a blends i. Maidens cater to a fashion that demands painting one eye red and the other yellow. * #

Emphasis on the manner in whi- h the number “13” has played its .sinister part in a recent murder trial ia. England will, no doubt, add to tl e number of thirteen enthusiasts a lar.e proportion of those who have been ca the fringes. One may as well 9 these timorous mortals the final push. Was it not M. Doumer who was assa jsinated when he was the 13th President of France, after he had bem elected on May IS, and after takir g office on June 13? Was not the su >, marine Kl 3 sunk with all hands duri’ J trials, Gl3 an admitted Jonah, ar i El 3 shelled on a sandbank by the Gc ■- mans? A further proof of the poten y of the number “13” will be recall; I by football enthusiasts. The Sprfa'boks were beaten on March 13, 19c.. Obviously the number is of evil omen.

If oue troubled to record all ti e events, ’ places, tables, encounters ai 1 the like in which the number “IS” h 4 been involved without any untowa I effects there is very little doubt th t they would far outnumber the occasions upon which “13” has had a si Ister effect. We like to think, nevetheless, more upon the sinister sit a of this figure than upon its mo o benevolent moments. Possibly for th t reason it has been set apart in ot.r minds. The fact remains that it -s not unlucky in every country. The Japanese do not worry about the flgu a “13.” Perhaps because their attenth a is fully occupied with “4.” It ,seems that they have proved to their own satisfaction that the number “4” is fu 1 of evil omen. It wo"” interesting if we made notes of this number ,in order that a comparison might be made between it and our “13” supers! .- tion. In theory, no number should ba more unlucky than any other, all ta > ing their turn for good and bad according to the inexorable laws of averages. Perhaps reader? can point out stances where numbers other than 1 Jo have affected their lives, or that c? thejr friends. w

Omens or no omens, the fact is th;l if all omens are to be regarded as trim portents, we are all faced with a rath 1 , r rotten time. As it is, we cannot slec > in berth number 13, either on boai 1 ship or nearer home on the railway , of this Dominion. We are faced wit’i the superstition that we should not St t sail on a Friday, despite the fact th: t if we wish to get anywhere we Wl deny ourselves many steamship se> vices that start, the world over, on that day. It is, moreover, difficult Li reconcile the fact that the Pilgrim Fathers reached America on a Friday. Friday is losing its bad reputation in one way, but it retains it in others. Only a very small proportion Of marriages take place on that day. Th” average proportion of marriages for the various days, in England, are Monday 62, Tuesday 143, Wednesday 125, Thursday IM, and Saturday 25'1. There are, of course, means of cancelling the evils we encounter. Jewellers will tell you that they make a handsome amount selling swastikas Ant lucky pigs. Both these charms take us back to days beyond our present civilisation and prove that at no time and in no place was every day, or thing, equally lucky or otherwise.

“I am told that streams emptying into Lake Wanaka have been frozen t‘> a depth of from Sin to Win., and that even the edges of the lake where the water is as shallow as two Inches does not freeze. Also that the water in tho lake is cold during the heat of sumner. Why is this?’ says “Interested." [Thd question was referred to the Geological Survey Office. The following reply has been received from the Director, Mr. J. Henderson: “The freezing of water along streams, and on the edges of lakes, depends so much on local conditions that without being on the spot one cannot make useful comment. Dead water in streams may freeze to Win., though circulating water two inches deep may not Similarly in the lake. Tn places where th * water Is not subject to currents ot wave action it may freeze to a certain depth, though at other nearby points it does not” As regards the coldness of this lake in summer is it not a fact that it is fed from meltinf snows off the mountains?!