BELIEVE IT OR NOT

Cue (NZERS), Issue 24, 31 May 1945, Page 5

BELIEVE IT OR NOT

A request by Richard Halliburton to swim through the Panama Canal was granted, on condition that he paid canal ninepence—on his tonnage. He passed through as ”S.S. Halliburton’’. The lance-corporal’s chevron was originally used to designate a gentleman of a troop of horse, who, having broken his lance and lost his horse, served in the ranks. The record price of 25,000 francs was paid in 1935 for the five-foot tresses ”of a remarkable Titian shade” taken from the head of an Austrian girl. A ’’Cardophilic Society”, the members of which are mostly men, has been established in Great Britain by enthusiastic collectors of cigarette cards, who gather for lectures and

discussions on cards, as well as to ’’swop” gossip and cards. One dealer in Scotland has been stated to sell LI,OOO worth of cards a month, mostly to adult collectors. The record for number of names is probably held by a girl born at Liverpool, England. Her father insisted on giving her every initial in the alphabet, so she was duly christened Ann Bertha Cecilia Diana Emily Fanny Gertrude Hypatia Inez Jane Kate Louisa Maud Nora Ophelia Pearl Quince Rebecca Starkey Teresa Ulysses Venus Winifred Xenophon Yetta Zenus. When the minute hand of Big Ben nears the first quarter its great weight causes it to reach the ”3” five seconds early, and similarly it is five seconds late in reaching the ”9”.