Oddments

Greymouth Evening Star, 16 October 1948, Page 4

Oddments

You shouldn’t take chances after 50. To live long, get a chronic ailment and take good care of it —Victoria Times There are still at least 128 ■ unexploded bombs buried in various parts of the British Isles. Most of them, the war Office says, lie in or around the big cities. • The men engaged in theix - removal are now, for the most part, German cx-P.O.W.s —all of them volunteers —working undex - the direction of British officers.

Since 1940, when this desperate work began, nearly 600 British soldiers have been either killed or wounded. Since Germans have fyeen doing the job, three of them have been killed and one wounded. $ :S :S « «

Ants spend the first three days of their lives learning, says an English writer. They run here and there touching and smelling whatevei - is in the nest. But from the fourth day onwards they stop learning. Every new thing they touch or smell is regarded as an enemy. Many people are like ants. They are open-minded only for a short period of their lives. Then they become routine-minded, resistant to new ideas and in danger of becoming bored. Today boredom is a widespread disease. It can only be cured by daily doses of the tonic of curiosity. There never was a time when there was so much to learn and so much to know. And finding out gives the zest that’s lacking in so many people. ❖

“A Ticket in Tatt’s is an expression that has passed into the language. The man responsible was George Adams who began the famous Tasmanian institution of Tattersall’s. (The original was founded in London in 1780 by Richard Tattersail, groom to a duke, who made his Grosvenor place establishment a centre of English race betting). Tattersall’s tickets, a lottery which brings a huge sum to Tasmania each year, are still distributed by the estate of George Adams. Buyers send money regularly from New Zealand, South Africa and the East. Asked how much money is invested in these tickets each year ,the answer of the manager of Tattersall’s was significant: “It is impossible to answer your question as our staff is more than busy handling current business.” And business running into millions a year is very good. < —The Seeker