REPORT ON COMPETITION NO. 12
THE usual prizes were offered for a short letter on some innocuous and irrelevant topic calculated to provoke a pro- tracted correspondence of the sort that sometimes appears in the most august of our daily papers. This was a highly agreeable competition to judge. The majority of the entries were in matter well calculated to appeal to any Correspond- ence Editor becalmed in the doldrums of the Silly Season, and in manner nicely observant of the conventions of their supposed channel of publication. The most popular topics were problems of animal treatment and behaviour, questions of terminology and derivation, the original significance of various social customs, moral dilemmas, old-fashioned pas- times, and suggestions concerning food and dress. Vivien Greene caught both style and subject exquisitely in a letter about the Christian names of a family surnamed Christmas, but cannot get high marks for inventiveness so soon after the celebrated correspondence on this topic. Mrs. H. B. Stebbing sent in an excellent entry about a hat, " worn by my grand- father at the opening of the Great Exhibition of 1851," and soliciting information about whether from its description it might be " a Bowler, a Billycock, or a Muller-cut-down." Miss Egerton was delightful about some pancakes made with snow in the place of butter ; her letter had an ending exactly in the approved key : " I can only say the result was sur- prisingly good, and if we have snow again this year our little ' Evacuees ' will no doubt be delighted to sample another edition! " Mr. H. C. Robins had a fertile subject in the reasons for singing in the bath, but his letter did not live up to a good beginning ; and the same must be said of Miss M. Hoare's entry, which began " Does a handshake reveal the character? " The first prize goes to Mr. Terry Gompertz for the first move in a correspondence which might outlast the war ; the second is divided between Mr. J. H. Eades, whose subject is a word for which even Mr. Partridge's Dictionary of Slang cannot provide a certain derivation, and Mr. Sidney Keyes's " Ecclesiasticus." Mr. Keyes, this time under the nom de guerre of " Sportsman," also submitted an entertaining letter on the subject of apoplexy in quails.
FIRST PRIZE.
Snt,—Since the outbreak of war business has caused me to be later in the City than was my habit. I have observed, therefore, many aspects of City life which had escaped my notice heretofore. Passing the General Post Office at seven last evening I heard a man call out " close " and immediately there was a loud banging and a sound of shouting from many parts of the building. I received the impression that the noise and cries were part of an ordered proceeding akin to the " Who goes home?" heard nightly in the House of Commons. Is there perhaps an old custom of crying certain words at closing time in the Postal Services? Il so, it would be interesting to know of other services, companies or corporate bodies who have a similar tradition.—I am, your obedient servant, TERRY G. GOMPERTZ.
SECOND PRIZE.
SIR,—When the Conscientious Objectors' Tribunal met at Preston last week, one applicant after giving his views, in reply • to Sir Miles Mitchell (a member of the tribunal) said " I am a Lancashire man but I have never heard the word jannock.' "
The saying " If you will be jannock ' with me I will be jannock ' with you" is common in Lancashire. I wonder if any of your readers know the origin and meaning of this saying? —Yours faithfully, J. H. EADES.
SECOND PRIZE.
Sui,—While not wishing to place too much credence on " signs and wonders," I would like to suggest that there may be more than coincidence in the appearance of the " Aurora Borealis " or " Northern Lights " in 1938, almost exactly a year before the out- break of the present lamentable war. I was a curate in Northants at the time of Mr. Gladstone's death in 1898, and well remember the appearance of the same phenomenon two days before that national calamity. The lights were plainly visible here in Kent, and I remarked to my wife at the time, " Surely this phenomenon must portend some unexampled catastrophe." My words seem to have been substantiated by subsequent events. It would be very interesting to discover if readers know of other cases of the appear- ance in these Southern latitudes of the " Aurora " preceding the incidence of some national misfortune.—Yours truly,
ECCLESIASTWUR. PROXIME ACCESSIT.
Sm,—These difficult times compel many of us to take meals away from home: food rationing will present further problems. Lon* experience has shown me that the following provides an admirable portable midday or evening meal: four slices of toasted brown bread, rubbed with a cut onion and spread with bloater paste. This, with home-made apple wine in a pocket flask, gives the baLanced diet of cereal, vegetable, fish and fruit. I should be glad to hear if any of your readers can better it.—Yours faithfully,
Previous page
