POSTSCRIPTS

Evening Post, Volume CXVI, Issue 144, 15 December 1933, Page 8

POSTSCRIPTS

Chronicle and Comment

BY PERCY FLAGE

Gold continues to rise in the U.S.A., but Roosevelt's trouble is to get something else to rise with. it. ■ . . • • • "Alabam," quite obviously a bridge addict, writes in to say. that a good deal depends on the player and the player on a good deal. • • • After a wild wrestling huddle-muddle in Brisbane, one Browning was given the verdict over one Bucht. Surely the decision ought to have gone to the hard-hitting boxer who sent Bucht down for the count? • ■ * * Dear Percy Flage,—The local broad* casting station has. surpassing originality; when tha Post Office clock chimed eight this morning (December 14), it was nonchalantly announced ai "studio time." HAZARD. ••■ • . ■ TOO MANY GET OFFSIDE. - Dear Percy,—-Can you tell me why so many people in. Wellington persist in walking on the wrong side of the footpath1? Can it be that they are not aware of the "keep to the left" rule! If so, I would be, pleased if you would let me broadcast it through your wide-ly-read column, which, I understand, has a circulation equal to that of the "Evening Post." : LEFT IS SIGHT. ; . • ♦._■»■ EARNEST -INQUIRY. Advertisement in a provincial co» temporary forwarded by "Elsa\': 14 store cows, 5 fat cows and ' vacancies for patients; terms, to springing heifers, 1 2-yr. steer, 1.----yearling P.A. steer, 1 yearling Jersey bull, 12 weaner pigs'. . "The attached ad. is self-explanatory up to. a point," writes "Elsa," "but I would certainly like to Jiave your or your readers' view on: (1) What price the vacancies are likely to. reach? (2) What could be considered as reasonable terms to the heifers?" "'.«-.■ » # WOOLLY APHIS (PERHAPS). Oh, there's Southdown and Corriedal^ Crossbred and eke Half-bred (I'm talking of the wool sale, it really turns one's head) — Merino, and coarse wool, super, slipes, and fine, But there's one they have in Sydney that beats this brain of mine; Now what on earth is "Comeback," that's what I want to know; Is it another breed of sheep, or is it what they grow? Comeback^ and Croissbreds, you read it in the news, . With greasy Merino —another pair of shoes! . So sing a song of wool sales; Southdowns and Corriedales, Crossbreds and Comebacks, , Lambs' wool and all. You can hear the farmers cheering, At the slump we'll soon be jeering, As prosperity we're hearing.. .. And cheques are growing tall! D.B. »,> * ♦ BETTER THAN CROSS WORDS. Talk about";*'lnvolved relationshipl— have you heard of the Home Secretary, Sir John Gilmour, who is uncle to his elder son and daughter, and his third child is first cousin to Ms elder son arid daughter. Lady Gilmour, by the way, is aunt to two of Sir John?s chil« dren. There's no for the answer, because-we're telling you. Lady Gilmour married her deceased sister's widower —Sir John. Thus she is aunt ■ as -well as stepmother ~to the two children by his first marriage—to Lady-; Gilmour 's sister. Sir John, by marrying his first wife's sister, becomes uncle to these children,, since he married their aunt. Hence the daughter of .Sir John and his present wife becomes cousin to her half-sister and half-brother, the children by the first marriage. It follows that Sir John . . . but now YOU ask US one. ': ■ * * * A NEW ZEALAND GLOAMING. (One of our liveliest postscripters ia a serious mood.) In this fair land may happiness be thine, . , . To dwell on rustic scene, and measured line; ■ ■■..'.. Seek- then, if ye a picture clear would see, That hour when heart and them* attuned shall be. Bathed in the purpled mist of fadinf day, . The distant hills seem near yet fa» away.; And farther still, how beautiful the hue, ...--, Of tinted peaks, of mountains drowned in blue. Hold! Fix well thy gaze through gath* ering hush, . . The artist paints on with a mellowM brush. .-■--. The zephyrs, gcented of the wild, soft blow, As through the whispering grove they, i-flow Around the fluttering of poor tired wings, . . • •. i The sleepy' sounds o£ little feathered things. Now, flute-like, there's the chattering protest . Of noisy blackbird, last of all to rest, A dog's bark rises from the hazy plain, 'Tis answered, and the silence Teigns again. How soon the peaceful darkness draw* ing nigh Will sprinkle myriad stars across the sky; ." ■ -. ' Comes there a murmur from a nearby stream As drowsy Nature slips into a dreamj Then through the gloom, a lonely morepork's call — And Night has spread her velvet cloak o'er all. WOBDSWOBTH LITTLE. ■ • * ♦ • ■■ ' "ONCE IN A BLUE MOON." Few English idiomatic expressions iave more mystery surrounding their , origin than the synonym for "never" or "on extremely rare occasions." An overseas inquirer has been looking into the matter, with not very convincing results. He discovered in an old document: "Rede me and be not wrothe," written by Roy and Barlowe in 1528, this proverb — "Yf they saye the mone. is blewe, We must believe that it is true." However, that did not help him much, but later he came upon a story in "The Times" remarking on the late arrival of the monsoon at Bombay. "A curious and rare phenomenon wag observed last night when the moon was seen to be distinctly blue. The colour appears to be between Cambridge blue and turquoise." Perhaps (the investigator comments) it is reasonable to assume that this rare event was the direct cause of the use of the phraw we have today, but, unfortunately, ncr« again it is a matter of mere unsuh. stantiated guesswork, however self-erfc dent the derivation may seem.