POSTSCRIPTS

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 34, 10 February 1931, Page 8

POSTSCRIPTS

Chronicle and Comment

BY PERCY FLAGE Five minutes' face-slapping every morning, says a beauty specialist, will help to make any woman lovely. ! Or unlovely, if the slappeo takes it in. the Vrong spirit. ' # » « , And Amelita knows. No one really sings in opera. You jußt make loud sounds.— Amelita Galli-Curci. That goes for a lot of our radio'd voo'alists, too. ♦ ♦' ■ * . Howdy, Percy! Overheard at a concert the other night: "I'm very fond of tho cella," "Oh, John, don't bo so ignorant! A cclla's a glace where they keep, beef [and stuff." "That's all right—l just said I wai very fond of it." C. H. EUo. ♦■ .',* .' • j "Gin Kick Shaw," presses upon u» ,gloatingly in this wise:— I» . ■ I Think I've got you this time, old Scout. You said yesterday that ther« 1 "are two sides to most things, including, tennis balls, etc."- That's a quaint physical phenomenon I'd love you to explain—if you can. Why, perspicacious one, there's th« outside and the inside. Selah! • • • What is called in "two-up" circles the "backlash"—from 11. Pango, Esq. i am sorry dear old perco that yofir wife should write that verso now that cat from bag is free you have all my sympathy if your surname rhymes with snag hers must surely rhyme with nag. We publish this much against our better judgment! Our one hope of escape now is to prevent this issue of "The Post" being thrown on our piazza this evening. * . * ■ *. To correspondents:— '' Aspombrains " and " Ignoramus. V—Thanks—both of you. As this noted column .lays claim to infallibility, we have to explain that'the mistake began, with the journal' from which tho par was taken. "Flageolet."—Nice arithmetic . . . quite up to the best of Mr. J. M' Combs, M.P., who is a, whale at adding and subtracting. See "Harihaha" in this issue. T. A. Eagle.—Your opening, "Sea here!" having reference to 142857, 'pulled us up with a shock. Your profound mathematics are quite beyond us . .'. which is our fault. Your main point seems to be: "What is more strange and important is that, if you take 27 (the sum of 142857) in fractions from 9999, you get the law of gravity. ... ."Sec "Harihaha" lower down. "Pek,e." —Jingle rather misses on all six. "Artful 'Arriet."—You can't catcli us out on that one, 'Arriet, even though it is a strong brain that knows i» turning. ♦ ■ » .. '..': •'. Putting our blind eye to the telescope, Nelson-wise, wo seem to discern a moral in this sage rhyme. What- a stirring there is on the foothills ,of Parnassus nowadays! THE NEW ZEALANDEE. There was a littlo father Who sailed enormous seas, .',:,' And when he reached New Zealattd^ He spoke such words as these:' "My little son, remember To mind your q's and p's, ' '• And don't forget your "Thank-yon" And always mention 'please': And with the lonely strangor— You put him at his ease. "And you be friendly-gentle With swaggie and with swell; But if you take the lid off— (And such things have befell) Now don't you turn the other check—• But deal out merryhel, And wade in like a mako shark* n Or like an h.c. shell: Fight on your soul-sick tummy! Fight on your blistered knees! Or else you ain't a Dinkuin— A7id we only click with these. ".When Austral bo,istings lift the roof, Or Yanks the welkin split— Now, don't join in and loudly shout 'The Dink'uins never quit!? But paste it in your little hat And —please remember it: For you must face all punishment Yet never flinch or quit. ■ . "Your house must ever open— Your bread no man refuse; And —even in a friendly gameEo everything but lose!" And now there's half a million Of fathers in the land;' And this they teach their little sons-^ Who always understand. _ ' H*W«o# *Die fighting—like the mako! (Old Maori motto.) f .y« «.■ ■ * "Harihaha" recalls the "magio number" 142857 recently brought into prominence in this erudite column, when wo pointed out that multiplied by any number up to six it gives the samo figures in the same order, but starting with a different figure in each case,rwhereas, multiplied by 7,; it gives 999999. He says:— : !. "You have evidently grown up. Being not quite adult, I remember having it hammered into me, that,.this magic number, repeated ad nauseam, or with dots over it (which'is equally sickening^ of course) is the decimal value of-one-seventh. But; look you, you can multiply .by any number you like, and it still plays the same trick. For higher multipliers than 7,: the product has more.than six figures. Cut off the surplus from the front :and add them to (I mean add —don't just write them after) the last six, and you have your magic number over again. For instance, multiply by 19; the product is 2714283. Add the first 2 to the last 3 and we have 714285. Multiply now by something a little 1arger—91,285,623. Taka my word for it, it com.es to . ~'. 13,040,790,244,911. < Add the first eight figures to the last six, and .we'have 13,285,701. Now add the first two to the last six again and we get ,285714! I You can play this game all night. If it comes out wrong; you've worked it wrong. If your multiplier is itself a multiple of 7, the final result is again a string of 9's. Take the big product given above and multiply by 7: it gives. 01,285,531,714,377. Add the first eight figures to the last six: 91,999,908; then add the first two to the last six: six 9's in a row. You can also divide 142857 or any of its variants repeatedly by 2 or 5 with similar results, but .not by 3, 7, 11, or any number which gives a repeating decimal. Well, what of it? We can think or" another number that has the same bad habits. No matter how we fool with it and try to make it loss, our overdraft, remains just what the bank says it is. We can't make it any Smaller, and the bank won't make it anjr larger.