THINGS TO COME

New Zealand Listener, Volume 5, Issue 124, 7 November 1941, Page 3

THINGS TO COME

A Run Through The Programmes

USTOM dies hard. Over a decade ago, people discovered that lusty singing in the mass tended to make them forget their individual worries and community sings developed as an antidote to community soup-kitchens and breadlines. Then the soup-kitchens and the breadlines disappeared down the arches of the lean years. But the community sings persisted through the lush years of plenty and into another epoch when again (though for an even graver reason) people found they wanted to sing together. However, like Parliamentary institutions, community singing must have its occasional recess. In Dunedin this off-spell will begin shortly, and the final sing of the current season will be broadcast by 4YA on Tuésday evening next, beginning at 8.0. What's To Do? With deep respect to Mrs. F. L. W. Wood, we feel that in the subject she has decided to speak on from 2YA next Monday she has bitten off rather more than she can expect to chew in a brief fifteen minutes. Surely even Francis Bacon, with all his gift of concise writing, could have filled several not inconsiderable volumes on the subject of "Children Indoors: What They Can Do." After a wet Labour week-end indoors with one of them, we might add that the amount that can be

done (or undone) by a small child varies inversely with the child’s size, and is only exceeded by the amount which the child’s parents have to undo (or do) afterwards. Mrs. Wood might have made things easier for herself, and us, if she had confined herself to "What They Can’t Do." That Man’s Father... The father of Felix Mendelssohn, the composer, was the son of Moses Mendelssohn, the philosopher. His complaint that in his youth he was known as the son of his father, and in his old age as the father of his son, is one of the treasures of historical wit. Perhaps it helps us to understand in the works of Felix that sparkle of humour which gives those works an enduring vitality. Listeners to 2YA on Monday, November 10, at 7.52 p.m., will hear Mendelssohn’s Trio in C Minor. Is This A Spider That | see Before Me? Although we believe, with John Buchan, that history is not a science pure and simple, that it requires insight and imagination on the part of the historian, we feel sometimes that historians let their imaginations run away with them. Take this business of Bruce and the spider, which is to be appropriately treated, by the irresponsibles who are responsible for "High Jinks in History," on Saturday week from 2YA. As the history books print it, it does not read at

| all like fhe experience of a.man of action, We afte more inclined to the theory that it wasn’t one spider Bruce saw but hundreds of spiders, the visitation being the penalty for attendance at a Burns. supper. We feel, however, that 2YA’s version of the incident will be as good as ours, or for that matter, as our artist’s. 5 New Facts About Fruit Mrs. Roosevelt told reporters that when the Duke of Kent visited Hyde Park (U.S.A.) recently, food in general and fruit in particular were topics of conversation. The Duke, it appears, told Mrs. Roosevelt that in Canada his eyes had beheld for the first time in many months an orange and a banana. At the moment we are feeling a bit that way

ourselves. Oh, yes! We know that the fruiterers are fairly well stocked, considering the time of the year, but the prices are so dazzling we don’t get much of a look at the fruit itself. So we’re wondering just what "New Facts About Fruit" we’re likely to learn from the talk of that title to be broadcast from 1YA at 11 a.m. on Tuesday, November 11. However, we’lt be listening — hopefully. Talking To The Parson The days of the dear old Parson are dead and gone-or almost. The kindly old soul of Busman’s Honeymoon, who insists on showing the chimney sweep

how the chimney should be swept has faded into historic gloom together with that pathetic figure of fun, the Rev. Robert Spalding, with his umbrella, his goloshes, his glass of milk, and his bath bun. Parsons to*day are surely as modern as ourselves, if not as modern as tomorrow! If you’re having a friendly chat with the vicar while he drives a few nails into the vicarage wall and connects. with a fingernail instead, there’s no need to count ten in that foolish and pointed manner. There are, however, lots of things a parson doesn’t like you to say -or do-and you will hear some of them from 1YA on Thursday, November 13, at 7.15 p.m., when our particular parson will conclude his series of talks with " What NOT to Say to a Parson." : Meet The " Count" Wellington swing fans will no doubt follow with interest the story of the career of " Court" Basie, the American jazz pianist, which will be told in Station 2ZB’s Kings of Jazz session on Saturday night, November 15. Mr. Basie, our scout on the swing front informs us, learned piano and organ from none other than "Fats" Waller, and the story goes that when Fats was "in the groove" (see swing glossary) Mr. Basie would etawl round on the floor getting a closeup view of Maestro Waller’s pedal action. One of Mr. Basie’s first jobs was with a combination called " Walter Page’s Original Blue Devils "-though there is reason to believe that this is not the same Walter Page who was America’s Great War ambassador in England twenty-five years ago. "Count" Basie has publicly stated that he is himself dissatisfied with the records he makes, "I

have a collection of over 1,000 records in my home, but not one solitary one of my own," he says. Listeners will be able to judge for themselves whether or not such drastic self criticism is justified. Schoolboy Humour "Those who can, do. Those who can’t, teach," says Bernard Shaw, and although the average man would not entirely agree with him, there is a widespread belief that the teacher has a pretty soft sort of job. "Nine till half-past three, and look at the holidays you get!" says the layman, and the teacher does look at them as they shine far off, a sunlit valley at the end of the long tunnel of term, The layman does not remember the lunch-times devoted to coaching the first eleven, the after-school hours with the scholarship class, and the evenings spent in correction of Latin proses. And worst of all is the pile of end-of-term examination papers, through which the unfortunate teacher must pencil his weary way, a way enlightened only by the gleam of humour from an occasional howler. Those listeners-teachers or nonteachers -- who would like the gleams minus the end-of-term examination papers are advised to tune in to 3YA on Friday eyening, November 14, when I. D. Campbell’s topical analysis of "Schoolboy Howlers," presented the previous week from 2YA, will be repeated.