LISTENINGS

New Zealand Listener, Volume 7, Issue 164, 14 August 1942, Page 9

LISTENINGS

(Perpetrated and illustrated

by

KEN

ALEXANDER

HE newspapers have given us a good story about the jackal and the wolf-otherwise, Musso and Ribbo. When it looked as though Rommel might take Alexandria, Musso is said to have put on his best marching suit, gathered up his technical yes-men, filled bags with Italian currency (worth about a bob a bag) and hastened to Libya there to await word that Alexandria had fallen. But Ribbentrop, also smelling out meat for his long teeth, flew to Tripoli with the intention of beating Musso to it; which is quite in order; for the wolf should always arrive before the jackal. Both waited and waited until the sands of the desert grew colder and colder towards them. Then Ribbo, who is a bit quicker in the uptake than Musso, said, "The quarry limps but falls not yet; and no good wolf falls on the victim until the victim has fallen." So he flew back to tell the leader of the pack that things were not as they seemed. But Musso said, "Let’s tarry awhile, brother jackals; you never can’t tell; a good jackal always hangs round in case of a soft snap." So Musso jumped about the sands of Libya, saluting himself with both arms and riding a white ass about the desert until, in the sand storms, it was difficult to decide which was Musso and which was the ass. But the ass wore nothing but a saddle and

bridle and that helped. In a couple of weeks Musso had practised riding triumphantly through Alexandria until he made a great show of it. All he needed was Alexandria. It was a great shame because Musso had been looking forward for a long time to riding triumphantly through something. Now it looks as though the only safe way for Musso to ride triumphantly through anything is in a long box with gold handles on it.