POSTSCRIPTS

Evening Post, Issue 37, 12 August 1936, Page 8

POSTSCRIPTS

Chronicle and CommcrJ

BT PERCff FLAGC

There isn't safety in numbers—for the professional numerologist. * • • Add to the list of the world's leastknown persons: The other patients oX t Dr. Dafoe. 1 ■ ' ■ . *.-..* * 1 The opening day of the Grand Nai Uonal Meeting was another' triumpii - for our Labour Government. Nica . i dividends they were, too. ' ♦> * * 3 . Now, as a memory test (writes l "Camou Flage") tell me what apolitical , researcher found in that South Island I gorge. ■ ' * • ' * ■■■■'■ ) Labourer (Karori): Apropos '. our - Labour Party's balanced Budget— i someone seems to be swaying tha ; scales. ' . ' :.*.* ' ; * . 3 A Northumberland centenarian died last month after seeing a motor-car for the first time. Unfortunately: ht did not see it soon enough. ' * * • ■-..-.■■■• Married men taking cookery lessons ' at a prominent London domestic school are allowed to take home the results of their culinary work.—Husi bands'-"burnt offerings" to their wives?. ; AUCTION BRIDGE PROBLEM, • , Dear Flage,—Playing auction bridgt ,- last night, the-writer went three no . trumps and got one trick, being : doubled. This cost him eight hundred. ; Can any players beat this? - Interesting point: The' opponents i claimed an extra 50 for a little slam. : Are they entitled to same? ' WHITE ANT. '.'■ » « - * WORDSWORTHIAN LAPSES. Dear P.F.—The, old man whosa ankles swelled over his work belongs to Wordsworth, nest cc pas? And yet this is the poet who could write the " "Ode to Duty" and "Ode on Intimations of Immortality"! Never was such a bird for hopping from the ridiculous to the sublime. Would he have mada a, good Postscripter? A. ■' ■ By the way, bona fide atrocity picked ■ from short story in magazine: "He found himself staring into the icy hot* ness of her flat, grey eyes"! ''.■-■■ A. r . ■ * • « '• INQUIRY DEPARTMENT. . ■ "Slang."—English, so far as we ara aware. In his "Dagonet Ballads* (Sims) we have: To go off their nuts about ladies, As dies for young fellars as fights. Dickens ("A Christmas Carol") wrote: "To edge his way along the crowded paths of life, warning all human sympathy to keep its distance, ; was what the knowing ones call nuts to Scrooge." And in "Princess of Thule" William Black makes one character say: "My aunt is nuts on : Marcus Aurelius." ' "Numerologist."—(l) With tha | ancient Romans 2 was the most fatal of all the numbers. (2)' The number of the year in the Melonic Cycle. As this consists of nineteen years, it may be any number from 1 to 19, and in ' the ; ancient Roman and Alexandria calendars this number was marked in. gold, hence the name, the golden number. . L.A.N.—It is a matter-on which ona might be too sensitive, but we think use of the surname only is the correct thing. ' ' ', FORETELLING THE FUTURE. This note is in the nature of a reply to a correspondent, "Olaf," who asks the "scientific name" for cup-reading. Divination by the cup is called scyphomacy. Here are a few other methods by which mankind has tried to foretell the future: Extispicy—(lsoo 8.C.) divination by means of inspecting the internal organs and entrails of animals. Crystallomancy—divination by means of a transparent body, such as a crystal ball, precious stone, or mirror. ' ' Hydromancy—divination by means of a mirror or,by dark lakes and silent pools. , Geomancy.—This method of divination is closely related to astrology: the ' earliest method known was by casting pebbles on the ground, from which conjectures were formed.. Dactylomancy—method of divination by means of rings. Pyromancy—divination by fire. Cheiromancy—divination by the lines on the palm of . the hand. Oneiromancy—divination by interpreting dreams, etc. RENUNCIATION. When some intrepid, suave, superior fellow Deliberately treads upon your corns. In temper you would be intensely mellow ' , If you did not growl at once and show your horns! You castigate me for my lack of humour— No! No! Dear Flage! You've missed another run! I'll tell you this-^'tis but an idle rumour, -- For round the waist I measure fiftyone! With this Falstaffian girth it would bs funny, ■ ' . ■ , If I could not with laughter sometimes croak; And in these days, when life's all beer and honey, . 'Tis not so hard to understand a jokel Alas! Alas! We both have got our failings, , . And for the best we often do not look! . . '.'... Come! Let's shake hands and stow away our wailings— Like Prospero, I now shall "drowa my book"! . ! HUPE TONETT. CALLING A SNOOK A SNOOK. Our world-respected contemporary. "The. Times," alias the "Thunderer" has a reputation for high dignity, especially in its correspondence column. Occasionally, however, a trifle of flippancy is admitted: here is an example, for which we are indebted to "Droo," the Strand, London; it refers to the Greiser nose-thumbing incident: Sir,—ln certain circumstances euphemism begins at home, and it is natural that (for instance) the Japanese should still refer to their invasion of Manchuria as an Incident. Natural, too, that, as your correspondent reports, Berlin should describe Herr Greiser's gesture last Saturday as "a disdainful movement of the hand." Herr Greiser did, in point of tact, cock a snook. The fact was reported in "The Times," but, as far as I have been able to discover, in ne sther English newspaper. There was talk of "an unmannerly gesture," bal> Lhe gesture was not given its name. Struck by this circumstance, I consulted various works of reference, but none of them could enlighten me on the etymological history of the phrase. Perhaps some of your readers can tell me who cocked the first snook, and when and where and why?— Yours, etc. We have heard of "cocking up the lose," a gesture of contempt, but 'cocking asnoofj. # ~ ,