RANDOM NOTES

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 100, 22 January 1935, Page 8

RANDOM NOTES

Sidelights on Current Events (By Kickshaws.) One feels somehow that Roosevelt’s daughter, who has just married a Washington correspondent, took a grave risk with the compositors. « * » Metcalfe may be unbeatable at a hop, step, and jump, but almost any politician could beat him in a shuffle. * * » Until we read that the vessel found drifting in the China Seas had been claimed as a prize, we thought maybe she was a ship of state. It may or may not be mere coincidence that India and Canada have been reporting intense cold at a period of the year that is only a few weeks away from one of the famous Buchan periods. These Buchan spells'have neither been proved nor disproved. Professor Buchan, who enunciated the theory, pointed out that there are six cold and three warm periods every year. The cold spells fall approximately between February 7-10, April 11-14, May 9-14, June 2Muly 4, August 6-11, and November 6-12. The warm spells come about July 12-15, August 12-15, and December 3-9. The worst of the cold periods is supposed to be the one iu May. One may argue that Buchan’s cold periods cannot be affecting India, because he based his observations on information obtained in Scotland. This may be correct, and in fact the intense cold in India is a little premature for Buchan converts. Nevertheless, all manner of curious theories have been evolved to explain Buchan’s cold spells. Some people declare that the world passes through cold patches in space about those intervals, much as a swimmer encounters hdt and cold patches in the sea. ♦ « « Buchan was born over 100 years ago, and experts to-day are left with the fact that Buchan’s cold periods have an uncanny way of proving to be correct. It has been observed that cold spells have a knack of coming within a week or so of Buchan’s predictions, and in the Northern Hemisphere, especially in England, his predictions are often right on time. It is a curious fact that one of Buchan’s cold periods includes the three days dedicated to the' three saints whom Continental tradition specially associates with cold, unpleasant weather. It would appear as if earlier observers had forestalled Buchan. Whether it be correct that there actually exist hot and cold patches in space must be left to the stratosphere enthusiasts or to the rocket exponents. Possibly by firing a rocket into space with recording instruments we may be able to discover the cold spots of the heavens. The next thing is to steer tlie world so as to avoid them. When that occurs nobody will be content, and editors will have a new body of querulous letter writers with whom to deal. If we can neither prove nor disprove Buchan’s predictions of cold spells, at least it is interesting to read what weather experts consider to be a “long shot” at the weather. These long shots embrace decades rather than hours. Usually long shots of this nature are safe enough, because they are forgotten long before the weather refutes them. In this they are more fortunate than the daily reports. ' Well, according to a French weather expert at the College de France, the world is due for about 16 damp years. Dr. Magnan, the expert in question, declares that the world has had periods of wet. cold years succeeded by warm, dry ones for thousands of years. Each period lasts some 16 years. He has looked at the rings of felled forest monarchs, and he knows. From 1806 to 1525 there were 19 cold years. From 18S6 to 1900 the years were warm and dry. From 1900 to 1917, he says, wet and cold prevailed. After that there came a spell of hot summers. Accordingly we are duh for a further spell of damp years lasting right up to 1950. Another “long shot” exponent also predicts cold, damp weather until 1939; so there is every chance of nice hot weather for the next decade or so.

If Mr. Lloyd George is really campaigning at Pwllheli he has drawn attention to an eight-letter word in his beloved Wales that contains only two vowels. It is not a record, but it will suffice as a mouthful. Indeed this campaigning in Wales may yet resurrect a place .with no vowels at all. But ■Wales can hold up its head where words are conterned. The language has made a speciality of long words, and in that the Germans have been badly beaten. Indeed only last year the railway company that served'a little Welsh village called “Llanfair” for short, decided to exhibit the full name of the village on 25 foot long banners containing the required 58 letters. So there it is and travellers may read the name of the station if they have time —Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogersychwymdrobllllandysili o g o g o - goeh. This mouthful of course means quite a lot. A more cautious language puts it into several sentences. In English it means "the Church of St. Mary in a hollow of white hazel near to a rapid whirlpool and to St. Tysilio’s Church, near to a rod cave.” The English contains 91 letters and the Welsh effort is, therefore, commendab’y compact; if rather a mouthful.

These Jong names are all very well one at a time, but just think what would happen if they ever became associated. There is a girl in Hawaii just simply called Kaumehatnehakahikikalanyakawahinekuhao. Well, suppose she lived in New Zealand at Tamataurakatangihangakoauau and wanted to order from the chemist an ounce of Piperidinzincpentamethylenedithioc a rbamat—well just think of the trouble s of ordering it apd signing her name and adding her address, and think of the trouble of finding an envelope large enough to contain the address and the Piperidinzlncpentamethylenedithioc a rbamat. It would drive chemists to distraction. Indeed in retaliation they might well move to a pretty little lake in Massachusetts called Chargoggagoggmanchauggagchau b 11 n a runga - maugg. It is declared that bathers tn the lake are drowned every year trying to pronounce it in the water. All we can hope is that' the fair Kaumehamehaka etc. does not drown herself in Chargoggagpgg etc. because the coroner would have a rotten time filling in the headings. Well here’s luck to the town in Sweden called A and the French river of the same brevity. Now then, you Scots folk; who hails from-IJrim-taidhvrickhillichatan—hoots mon I

“Could you inform me per medium of your ‘Random Notes,' the various speeds of the Italian warship that recently visited Wellington?" writes "Snzzle.”

ITlm Armando Diaz lias four spemis —stop, cruising, top, and reverse. Sh' doe« nothing at all at stop. 19 knots at her economical cruising speed, anil 39 knots at top speed. In reverse maybe she could get up to 10 knots, maybe she couldn’t,!