DR. FRANK CRANE’S DAILY EDITORIAL

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 192, 3 November 1927, Page 14

DR. FRANK CRANE’S DAILY EDITORIAL

CURIOSITIES OF NEWS (Copyright, J9S7) -jITOST people are familiar with the classical remark of the newspaper man that if a dog bites a man that is no news, but if a man bites a dog that is news. This illustrates the fact that news means something remarkable or something that attracts attention. Along with the front page items of big events there is a fringe constantly of curious news items which we find in the papers. During the past few weeks I have collected some of these, as follows: Here is one of a trained flea troupe with a gold collar who escaped from its owner. A curious stunt by seekers of publicity recently has been sitting on top of flag poles. A number of people have sat on poles for days at a time in an effort to establish a pole-sitting record. Absurdity could hardly go further than this. A Japanese in Tokyo got his doctor’s degree at the Imperial University by writing a thesis on the amours of fleas and lice. Here is an account of a baud made up entirely of saxophone players which has been having a field day with a concert by #OO saxophones. Then there is an item of a man who arranged his fishing lines so that when he got a bite they would ring a telephone. This is the first instance apparently of a man fishing by telephone. Into a barber's shop there came four women representing four generations from great-grandmother down, and got their hair bobbed. That also was found worthy of a place in the newspaper. A boy falls down a well and is not rescued until after five days, when lie is removed from the shaft in a delirious condition. A young married couple were bathing, when the raft which they used was suddenly blown away into the water by a squall. It would seem that most preachers might accomplish some good by attending to their business, but one who will stand on his head in the pulpit will get more space in the papers.