Lady Luck
WE are all tempted to exaggerate the Part chance plays in human affairs. "If Cleopatra’s nose had been half an inch longer," we speculate, "If the ab-sent-minded scientist had not jumbled ‘his test-tubes" .... "If the prospector had not picked up the nugget to throw at his dog" .". . And so on. Idle speculations, but we know very well, like the child with a fairy-tale, that we are just enjoying a sort of make-believe. However the 1YZ programme A Matter of Luck, broadcast on Wednesday evenings, seeks to exploit our amiable weakness and would have us believe that scientific achievement is a matter of luck at bottom, and not the product mainly of hard work and hard thought. These broadcasts, apparently so harm+ less-and on imteresting topics, would certainly infuriate a scientist. The programme insists too on its authenticity but it is difficult to know where this begins or ends. The dramatised scenes must obviously be inventions, and possibly some of the characters are, too. Did Sir James Dewar, the 19th Century physicist, have such very positive views on the evils of a classical educa-
tion, one wonders?
K.J.
S.
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 22, Issue 552, 20 January 1950, Page 11
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190Lady Luck New Zealand Listener, Volume 22, Issue 552, 20 January 1950, Page 11
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Copyright in the work University Entrance by Janet Frame (credited as J.F., 22 March 1946, page 18), is owned by the Janet Frame Literary Trust. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this article and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the New Zealand Listener. You can search, browse, and print this article for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from the Janet Frame Literary Trust for any other use.
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