“What shall we do – or go fishing?”
(From Body, boots, & britches: folktales, ballads, and speech from country New York by Harold Thompson)
John Lentell
October 27th, 1968
Month: June 2010
Friday’s Piece
“Love thy country, wish it well,
Not with too intense a care,
‘Tis enough, that when it fell,
Thou its ruin didst not share.”
(George Bubb Dodington, 1st Baron Melcombe, 1691 – 1762)
John Lentell
October 26th, 1968
Thursday’s Piece
“In your longing for your giant self lies your goodness; and that longing is in all of you.”
(The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran, 1883 – 1931)
John Lentell
October 25th, 1968
Wednesday’s Piece
Chief Justice Warren, when Governor of California began a political address thus: “Ladies and Gentlemen, I’m pleased to see this dense crowd here tonight.” A voice from the back shouted, “Don’t be too pleased. We ain’t all dense!”
John Lentell
October 24th, 1968
Tuesday’s Piece
“I don’t know, Ma’am, why they make all this fuss about education; none of the Pagets can read or write, and they get on well enough.”
(William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne, 1779 – 1848 – to Queen Victoria)
John Lentell
October 23rd, 1968
Monday’s Piece
“Ross, if you don’t lend me your Orlando book you are a bad Samaritan.”
(Dickon Lentell – age 5 – to his brother!)
John Lentell
October 22nd, 1968
Sunday’s Piece
I have a London-tailored, double-breasted, dark grey, narrow pin-striped, fairly up-to-date cut, winter weight suit. It cost the earth and I never wear it. Winter is upon Europe and should the next round of ‘talks’ be held there, or in a climate as chilly, I would willingly loan my suit to a size 40 Rhodesian delegate. If the journey is successful I would be delighted and, understandably, not a little proud of this ‘old friend’ who came into my life with good intentions but who has lead such an uneventful existence so far. Nothing up the sleeve – I swear.
John Lentell
October 21st, 1968
Saturday’s Piece
“Hubert Brinton told me he took it down in a notebook at the time how a verger was escorting a party round Westminster Abbey, when one of the party knelt down and prayed: “Come along, sir,” commanded the verger – “But mayn’t I have a few moments of private devotion?” – “No, we can’t ‘ave that, or we should soon ‘ave people prayin’ all over the place.”
(An Innkeeper’s Diary by John Rowland Fothergill, 1876 – 1957)
John Lentell
October 20th, 1968
Friday’s Piece
“Pathological exhibits…human scum…paranoiacs, degenerates, morons, bludgers…pack of dingos…industrial outlaws and political lepers…ratbags. If these people went to Russia, Stalin wouldn’t even use them for manure.”
(Arthur Caldwell, 1896 – 1973, Australian Minister of Immigration, on Australian communists in a speech.)
Our land is a soft land! – John Lentell
October 19th, 1968
Thursday’s Piece
“The extreme penalty for bigamy?
Two mothers-in-law.”
(Lord Chief Justice Russell, 1832 – 1900)
John Lentell
October 18th, 1968
Wednesday’s Piece (2)
“A local doctor’s bill now bears a sticker reading, ‘Long time no fee’.”
(From ‘Shake Well Before Using’ by Bennett Cerf, 1898 – 1971).
John Lentell
October 17th, 1968
Wednesday’s Piece (1)
(Originally submitted but rejected by Rhodesia Herald censors):
“At the RBC you either resign or remain in a state or resignation. (With apologies to Collie Knox)”
(The RBC was the state controlled Rhodesian Broadcasting Corporation, now succeeded by the state controlled Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation)
John Lentell
October 17th, 1968
Tuesday’s Piece
“Man propounds negotiations, Man accepts compromise.
Very rarely will he squarely push the logic of a fact
To its ultimate conclusion in unmitigated act.”
(Taken from Rudyard Kipling‘s poem “The Female of the Species“, 1865 – 1936)
John Lentell
October 16th, 1968
Lentell Soup 