POSTSCRIPTS

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 40, 17 February 1939, Page 8

POSTSCRIPTS

Chronicle and Comment

BY PERCY -RAGE

"There is a shortage of carpenters, but a plenitude of Cabinet-makers/ comments "General Les." •X- * a ""Ken." —If the dictatorship of -tha proletariat should not relax, we shall soon hi prevented from paying cur debts. •» ■» . * • If Mr. Parry is in earnest about protecting the fauna of this country, what about a raid on the bird-catching tree, which snares fantails and silvereyes? # ■>- * * For the 'nth time one of our political leaders has discovered that our great heritage. is at stake. That's perspicacity for you! « ' t ■■' • ■ ■■, , .; SOLEMN THOUGHT. Progress does not mean a thing, It brings us' nought whereof to sing, 'Tis but traffic lights, milk bars, and "swing." W.B.H- ---«• # * FUN IN THE ADS/ For Sale,, Savage Washing .Machine, spin drier, very little use;, £.53 10s new, cash price £25. King ——. ' "* Don't you think, Fins?, it 'might ba better tamed? l. . ' WHOOSIT.... ■ PHILOLOGICAL NOTE. ;;; (For the consideration of o'chors—and Cabinet Ministers.) . Sabotage means the malicious throwing of shoes, or sabots, by French workmen into the machinery of their masters. The ncun, meaning "spiteful damage," has come to stay, and, so long as it!behaves itself, may do some service. But let us by: all means sabotage the verb', for the robust verb "to wreck" will always do the work better. Certain politicians-like it, because it can^be used to suggest malicious injury where thers is no malice and no injury is done. But that-is only to say that the use of it is unfair as well as unlovely. Quoted1 from "What a Word!" (A. P. Herbert) by ■ Nemo. . ' ; • * - •• 1 ; : FALLACIES.; i< ' > As you may know, a fallacy is a mistaken belief. The world is thick with them. Here art) some samples.; ; Air-conditioning is not /a brand-new invention as; is supposed by most people. Actually Mnrco Polo described air-conditioning ca tile Island of Ormus in 1275 A.D. -.'. Many people imagine 'that .Govern-ment-sponsored public works construction projects are something entirely new in history. Not so. It is a ■practice,, that goes back to ancient times. In 1901 the Government of India put some six million people to ; work; on public works relief because cf crop failures and consequent famine. Another popular notion that is. not borne out- by. scientific-study is taat.. raisins iara very rich in ut'.Usable iron, and that "if you cat a few handluls a. day you will enrich your blood.. It. is more likely that you will get a stomach ache, for nusinr, contain ,a hign percentage of rouglu'Sc. '* ' * ,; * ■ ■ BRAIN TEASER. , Dear.Percy Flage,—Home.again after a: trip aroundxsome: wild and woolly spots in- the far riorth . . . where the word "PNEUMATIC," of your brain. teaser, would- hav.r.' *~"d things along a bit. Cheerio. ■ —. ■ -. • - . ■ , . ■ GAY S. Heretaunga. • ' Also' this: . '■ . . ■■•-. .'; -. ■ J •Twas not easy, yet; the erratic Somewhat rheumatic asthmatic Purloined from the attic My new tyre—PNEUMATIC! . ' BREEZY. Our thanks for the suggestions. Other correct solutions from—Scotty Moms ("Very simple .. . "), J-T. ("Ginger 'em up, Flage"), Jill, ■M. ("Your daily feature greatly interests me"), "Miramar" : ("Elementary, my dear Flage"), and "Cowbail" (Johnsonville). The -problem wss _on the easy side, but- we have a notion that tomorrow's—one of our very own —will prove more complicated Watch out for it. TKE KING'S ENGLISH. We'll begin with box, the plural is boxes, But the plural of ox is oxen, not oxes. One fowl is a goose, but two are called geese, . .' Yet the plural of mour.c is never meess. You may find a lone mouse, or a whole nest of mice, But the plural of house is houses, not hice. ■■ ■• - If the plural of man is always men,. Wliy shouldn't the plural of pan be called pen? , If I speak of a foot and you show me two feet, And if I give you a' boot, would a pair be called bs-t? ' " . If one is a tooth, end-a whole set are Why "shouldn't the -rlv.rr.l of booth be ' called bcofn? ■ \, If tb<* Fingular's this and the plural these. - .Should the plurrl oi kiss ever .be kesss? We rpeak of a brcthor and also of brethren, ■' '' But though we cay mother, we never say methrsn. r Then ths masculine pronouns are he, his, and him, - But imagine the feminine, she, shis, and shi'in. So what? .- . . (Sent to us by Heretaunga.) " We have sn idea this appeared in Col. 8 several yerrs ago. Even so, it i- one of those 'rhymes worth re-. Bismarck is htnk in the news again —dragged there by no 1->33 than Adolf Hitler. Though the Fuhrer doesn't smoke, he might frA food for thought in the note thrt fallows. , .-• Bismnrck v/n ore of V->~' greatest friends tobao"'o ev~r b"-l. YThen Jules Fnvre visited-bin to. di-^uss terms-of peacp after th-3 F:.— -."'">-Pri'ssi?n W.^r, the Iron Gh?nr«!''?r c-'-^A the Frenchman if he sr'0I:r'i'. md cfTered' him a cigsr. Favre srid h™ r'ii not smc'-«. Then Birm-Tcl: r^"-'2 !- jt d-'^^less defence of sT^lrr":—"r'?h-n you p.ra wronu! V. Th"n a r.""» b^--?r^ a d:?ci.-> sion which rnn-y 'e~o?<y }-?.■! to a bested argument, or even a s.'iov/ of temper, it is always better to rr.ioke whil? one is talking. You se^. a cirtar held in the hand end nur-ed with care serve?;, in a measure, to ke?p our gestures under control. It is a gprt of diversion: as the blue smok's furls upward the eye involuntarily frTows it; the effect is soothing, one fes'a better tempered, and more inclined.to mfke concessions —and to bo continually ..making concessions is v.-hnt we diplomats live on. It is true that you, as a nonsmoker, bays one advantage over me— you are more watchful' and observant; on the other hand, you. are more apt to be guided by tho impulse ■of the moment."