TO-DAY AND TO-MORROW

Radio Record, Volume I, Issue 37, 6 April 1928, Page 6

TO-DAY AND TO-MORROW

To Those About to Build, ‘The greatest labour-saving device is a well-planned house. In tite planning of the house the most important thing is that the living rooms shall be so planned that they take full advantage of sunlight and fresh air. How often does one see houses planned so that the kitchen gets all the best sun, making it unbearably hot to work in in summer, although, of course, this keeps the meat safe nice and warm, and the chief living room facing, perhaps, east and getting practically no sun in the winter. It is essential to see that all living rooms so far as possible get some sun during the winter months. 2 % * One or two Stories? As a general rule a better plan can be worked out with a two-story house than a single story, for the upper tier ef rooms can get better direct sunlight than if they were all placed side by side on one floor. Again, I am sure that it is far more healthy to sleep upstairs than down, with only lin. flooring, with many joints, between the ground (from which damp air rises at night) and the sleeper. With two stories. we get a cushion of dry air in the living rooms (occupied during the day), between the sleeper and the ground. I am quite satisfied that the prevalence of rheumatism in New Zealand is largely due to sleeping in one-story houses during the damp winters. There is a by-law throughout the length and breadth of England which compels house builders to cover the whole site under the house with a layer of 6 inches of concrete to prevent damp air rising into the dweiling. England would not spend hundreds of thousands of pounds laying all this concrete if no damp air arose from the ground into the house. So sleep upstairs, if possible, is my advice. Another advantage of upstair bedrooms is that windows may be left open without cats jumping in at night, and mav be left open all day without the feeling that someone mav lift the silver off the dressing "table! * 'e Central Heating. Another matter to be considered is central heating. Personally, I am all for it-it is necessary in a wooden house, aud it is not a very costly item, all things considered; but two boilers should be provided where the hot water service is also from a domestic boiler. Hf this is done, then in the summer, when no heating is required, except for domestic hot water service, only a sinll botier has to be stoked, whiel means a big saving in fuel. Another gpd arrangement, where cost will not «dw of a complete installation af radi- # ¥s throughout the bouse, is to have a 3, éhtly larger boiler for the domestic not water supply, and to run from this one or two radiators only, one in the hall, and, if two are installed, one on the landing upstairs, also a nickelplated towel rail in the bathroom. A small installation of this description will mean very little extra cost and fuel, and will do much to take off the rawness of the air throughout the whole house during the winter months.-Stan-levy W. Fearn, A.R.I.B.A., from 2¥.A. Will Shingle Go? . Are the shingle and the bob at last going out of fashion? This is a question that is agitating the whole world of women, Though some fashionable hairdressers are still doubtful, others believe that the return to long hair has already begun. These latter have found a champion in Sir W. Arbuthnot Lane, who, speaking in Lancashire, said that the "fad of bobbed hair is passing and hair is being dressed more in accordance with the Greek style, which las never yet been surpassed for beauty.’? Emile, the Conduit Street Court hairdresser, thinks loug hair is coming back, but only by degrees. Other notable hairdressers, again, do not believe that long hair will ever he general again, although women are wearing their hair just a little longer.

Three Pairs of Stockings a Day. The one and only Mistinguet-the owner of "the most beautiful legs in the world,’’-has been in London for a few days, collecting English girls to take part in a revue in Berlin. She gets over a hundred letters a week from women asking for advice as to how to beautify their legs, but it is quite untrue that she has any secret. "The only advice I can give them," she says, "is to go and get a new pair if they can." Mistinguett wears three pairs of stockings a day-one for the morning, one for afternoon, and one for evening. Once worn they are thrown away, eee oe eee

Song of the Skirt. "Half an inch, half an inch, half an inch shorter, The skirts are the same of mother and daughtez, When the wind blows each of them shows Half an inch, half an inch more than they oughter." These lines, written by the Bishop of Ely, were quoted by Viscount Lascelles recently at a diuner in London to celebrate the seventh anniversary of the foundation of the Tavistock Square Clinic for Functional Nervous Diseases. He was referring to the woollen and worsted trades in the West Riding of Yorkshire, and he said they had fallen on evil times, for they were the victims of fashion The cloth they made was used for ladies’ dresses. "T hope, ladies," he said, after quoting the lines, "that what you save on these half inches you will devote to the Tavistock Clinic.’ 2 Ld e "J, too, am a mother," said the elephant, as she trod on the hen pheasant, and compassionately sat on the eggs in her place.