Column 8
Sydney Morning Herald
Monday February 4, 1991
* LION MANURE: Our inquiries on behalf of Mr Philip Bradley, of Lake Bathurst, who is seeking a supply to scare wild deer from his garden, led us to the Lion Safari at Warragamba. Sorry, they don't collect the stuff - it just lies out there in the sun. And the lions would take a dim view of anyone going out with a bucket and spade. But there are alternatives: Carol, of Maianbar, whose garden is visited by deer from the Royal National Park, recommends a liberal spreading of blood and bone. And a Palm Beach reader passes on a tip from northern Scotland. The Scots festoon their roses with old stockings and pantyhose - presumably the flapping scares the deer.
* MATRIX Services, of St Leonards, a company that recruits medical and health workers for Saudi Arabia, has had a request from a Jeddah hospital that's seeking a medical director. Conditions of employment: "Salary -negotiable. Benefits - company car, executive housing, education allowances, good schooling. (Scud-Free Zone)."
* WHEN MASAKO Lynch, of Woollahra, took some Japanese friends to Sydney Airport to fly home, they found that as part of the security check they had to remove batteries from electrical items, including their whizbang cameras. This they cheerfully did. They were given the opportunity to put the batteries in their cargo hold luggage, but instead threw them away, intending to buy fresh ones in Japan.
* THIS incident raises two points. First, why remove the batteries? In the present climate, it appears, it's a reasonable precaution against terrorism -a bomb needs a power source for detonation, and the batteries could provide that source. Secondly, Paul Lynch, Masako's husband, urges travellers not to discard their batteries. Why? Because cameras use such a range of batteries that there's no guarantee you can buy replacements overseas.
* IN THE MID-1950s, Tom Sewell edited and published Television Preview, the first program magazine for our fledgling TV industry. It was later swallowed by TV Week, but that's another story. Writing the occasional article, recalls Mr Sewell, was an eager, 25-year-old New Zealander, who got Pound 1/10/- ($3) for his first story, about the ATN 7 cook, Del Cartwright. Thirty-odd years on, that Kiwi has made headlines of his own as possibly the best-known journalist covering the Gulf - CNN's Pulitzer Prize-winner, Peter Arnett.
* SCOTS rose almost as one to the suggestion that the English took the haggis north "when they conquered Scotland" (Column 8, Wednesday). Setting aside various confrontations on the playing fields, the English, say the Scots, have never conquered Scotland - in fact the Scots have never been conquered by military might. Culloden? The victorious army wasn't English - it was Hanoverian and even had Scots in it. Next week: We insult the Picts.
* CUSTOMERS at K-Mart at Katoomba felt time was marching on when the store PA system announced: "The first batch of hot-cross buns came out of the ovens this morning." Easter Day isn't until March 31.
* A BUSINESSMAN at The Rocks would like to meet B.V. Francis who, on May 23, 1988, signed a Westpac cheque for $100,000. The businessman found half of the cheque, the end bearing the signature, amount and date, in Argyle Street. "I am sure B.V. Francis will update the cheque and we can share the proceeds,"says the hopeful finder.
© 1991 Sydney Morning Herald