Children begin by loving their parents; as they grow older they judge them; sometimes they forgive them.
John Lentell
Rhodesia Herald
29th March, 1971
Monday’s Piece
Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquility.
(Preface to Lyrical Ballads by William Wordsworth, 1770 – 1850)
John Lentell
Rhodesia Herald
28th March, 1971
Sunday’s Piece
Live today, forget the cares of the past.
(Epicurus, 341–270 BC
John Lentell
Rhodesia Herald
27th March, 1971
Saturday’s Piece
Men cannot read women’s characters from their faces. It is well that they are denied this faculty or the race would become extinct.
(Sabine Baring-Gould, 1834 – 1924)
John Lentell
Rhodesia Herald
26th March, 1971
Friday’s Piece
What is that I feel, Fanny? Why am I so weak in body that I cannot take exercise? Why cannot I keep my mind on a book for one moment? Why can I not write two sentences together? Why should every mouthful that I eat stick in my throat? Oh, Fanny, is it his legs, think you, or is it his title?
(From Chronicles of Barsetshire by Anthony Trollope, 1815 – 1882)
John Lentell
Rhodesia Herald
25th March, 1971
Thursday’s Piece
Needles and pins! Needles and pins!
When a girl marries her troubles begins.
John Lentell
Rhodesia Herald
24th march, 1971
Wednesday’s Piece
Es ist nicht so fein gasponnon es komut doch das Licht der Sonnen.
(There is nothing so finely woven, it comes to light in the sun)
(or, Everything comes to light in the end)
German proverb
John Lentell
Rhodesia Herald, 23rd march 1971
Tuesday’s Piece
All ambitions are lawful except those which climb upward on the miseries or credulities of mankind.
(Joseph Conrad, 1857 – 1924)
John Lentell
Rhodesia Herald, 22nd March 1971
Monday’s Piece
Proper hymn to sing at the close of a marriage ceremony: “Onward Christian soldiers, marching as to……”
John Lentell
Rhodesia Herald, 21st March, 1971
Sunday’s Piece
Marriage is a very good thing when two people are so poor that they depend on each other, mutually, for daily bread, or if they are rich enough to live apart.
(Francis Marion Crawford, 1854 – 1909)
John Lentell
Rhodesia Herald, 20th March 1971
Saturday’s Piece
He never will marry, I’ll tell you the reason.
One love at a time is all he can control,
And he loves himself so, he would think it high treason
To give any woman a share in his soul.
John Lentell
Rhodesia Herald
19th March, 1971
Friday’s Piece
Some for renown, on scraps of learning dote,
And think they grow immortal as they quote.
(From Love of Fame by Edward Young, 1863 – 1765)
John Lentell
18th March, 1971
Thursday’s Piece
Father is rather vulgar, my dear. The word Papa, besides, gives a very pretty form to the lips. Papa, potatoes, poultry, prunes and prism are all very good words for the lips: especially prunes and prism.
(From Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens, 1812 – 1870)
John Lentell
17th March, 1971
Wednesday’s Piece
What men call gallantry, and gods call adultery,
Is much more common where the climate’s sultry.
(From Don Juan by Lord Byron, 1788 – 1824)
John Lentell
16th March, 1971
Tuesday’s Piece
A truth that’s told with bad intent
Beats all the lies you can invent.
(William Blake, 1757 – 1827)
John Lentell
15th March, 1971
Monday’s Piece
Wrinkles should merely indicate where smiles have been.
(Mark Twain, 1835 – 1910)
John Lentell
14th March, 1971
Sunday’s Piece
“Dear John Lentell –
We are holding for ransom one irreplaceable imported (smuggled?) article. Do not contact either the C.I.D. or the local Fuzz. Your article will be returned to you unbroken if you comply with this stipulation. Place the following piece in the Rhodesia Herald –
‘For the cup of sun I stole
From the shelf beside the roll
I apologise most abjectly.’
All transactions will be carried out over a bottle of Manica. This is your one and only ultimatum – comply with it or your article will be brushed out. Peace.”
(Anonymous letter received – unstamped – 5c postage dud)
John Lentell
13th March, 1971
Saturday’s Piece
I’m sending mine to Filippa’s.
John Lentell
12th March, 1971
Friday’s Piece
“NEW laws could force you to kennel your bitch…”
(Advertisement in yesterday’s Personal Column)
John Lentell
11th March, 1971
Thursday’s Piece
“I wish you could make the kind of bread my mother used to make.”
“Well, dear, I wish you could make the kind of dough my father used to make.”
John Lentell
10th March, 1971
Lentell Soup 