“At the BBC you either resign or remain in a state of resignation.”
(Collie Knox, 1899 – 1977)
John Lentell
29th September, 1969
Monday’s Piece
“A young Apollo, golden-haired,
Stands dreaming on the verge of strife,
Magnificently unprepared
For the long littleness of life.”
Rupert Brooke by Frances Cornford
John Lentell
28th September, 1969
Sunday’s Piece
“A famous philanthropist was once asked: ‘How are you able to give so much, and still have so much?’
‘Well,’ replied the generous man, ‘as I shovel out, He shovels in and the Lord has a bigger shovel than I have.'”
(Christian Science Monitor)
John Lentell
27th September, 1969
Saturday’s Piece
Into young minds we must instill
Good things and those of worth
That they may build as is the will
Of He that made this earth.
John Lentell (part of some verse written with a comrade in an army billet in 1945)
26th September, 1969
Friday’s Piece
Corpulent men and their corpulent cars
Bulging bellies and boots
And a mutual consumption of spirit
Hastening the inevitable end
John Lentell
25th September, 1969
Thursday’s Piece
When will we Rhodesians realise the benefits of bidets in our bathrooms? We’re primitive!
24th September, 1969
Wednesday’s Piece
From the depth of my soul I love the sea,
From the depth of the sea comes my soul.
John Lentell
23rd September, 1969
Tuesday’s Piece
“A grey-haired old woman was waiting for a bus. She was very large and crippled with rheumatism. Her arms were loaded with packages. As the bus stopped, a man waiting behind offered a helping hand. The old woman smiled and shook her head. ‘I’d best manage alone,’ she said. ‘If I get help today – I’ll want it tomorrow.'”
John Lentell
22nd Spetember, 1969
Monday’s Piece
“Actual evidence I have none,
But my aunt’s charwoman’s sister’s son
Heard a policeman on his beat
Say to a housemaid in Downing Street
That he had a brother, who had a friend,
Who knew when the war was going to end.”
(Reginald Arkell, 1882 – 1959)
John Lentell
21st Spetember, 1969
Sunday’s Piece
“‘The world,’ Dwight Morrow once wrote to his son, ‘is divided into people who do things and people who get the credit. Try, if you can, to belong to the first class. There’s far less competition.'”
(From “Dwight Morrow” by Harold Nicholson)
John Lentell
20th September, 1969
Saturday’s Piece
“I do not choose to be a common man. It is my right to be uncommon – if I can. I seek opportunity – not security. I do not wish to be a kept citizen, humbled and dulled by having the state look after me. I want to take the calculated risk; to dream and to build, to fail and to succeed. I will never cower before any master, nor bend to any threat. It is my heritage to stand erect, proud and unafraid; to think and act for myself….”
(Dean Alfange, 1897 – 1989)
John Lentell
19th September, 1969
Friday’s Piece
“May I ask you the secret of success?” an ambitious young man said to a great merchant.
“There is no easy secret,” replied the merchant. “You must jump at your opportunity.”
“But how can I tell when my opportunity comes?”
“You can’t,” snapped the merchant. “You have to keep jumping.”
John Lentell
18th September, 1969
Thursday’s Piece
“One of Ripley’s famous cartoons pictured a plain bar of iron worth $5. This same bar of iron when made into horseshoes would be worth $10.50. If made into needles it would be worth $3,285, and if turned into balance springs for watches, its worth becomes $250,000. The same is true of another kind of material – you. Believe it or not!”.
John Lentell
17th September, 1969
Wednesday’s Piece
“Special attention given to educational and emotional difficulties.
Full time psychologist. Registered nurses. Pool. Fireproof building.
Paul L. White, M.D., F.A.P.A., Medical Dir.
Bert V. Brown, Dir.”
(From an Advertisement for an American School)
John Lentell
16th September, 1969
Tuesday’s Piece
“Groucho Marx recently, I’m told, resigned from the Friar’s Club with the simply chilly explanation: ‘I don’t want to belong to any club that would accept me as one it’s members.'”
(John Crosby in New York Herald Tribune)
John Lentell
15th September, 1969
Monday’s Piece
“Everywhere man blames nature and fate, yet his fate is mostly the echo of his character and passions, his mistakes and weaknesses.”
(Democritus, 460 BC – 370 BC)
John Lentell
14th September, 1969
Sunday’s Piece
“Mr. Daniel Bullen of Carbrooke, Norfolk, who was 103 yesterday, still manages his own farm. When he was 100, Mr. Bullen said: ‘It’s work that keeps me alive. It never killed any man.’ Later Mr. Bullen’s family hid his scythe to stop him working.”
(Manchester Guardian)
John Lentell
13th September, 1969
Saturday’s Piece
“Miss Barrymore was told that the actress had acquired a new husband, and had made a full confession of her past life to him. ‘What honesty! What courage!’ marvelled the critic. ‘What a memory!’ added Miss Barrymore.”
John Lentell
12th September, 1969
Friday’s Piece
“When a married woman calls upon another married woman and finds her out, she leaves three cards – one of her own and two of her husband’s. If the lady of the house is a widow or a spinster she will leave only one card of her husband’s. In no case does a lady leave her card upon a gentleman….”
(From The Book of Etiquette by Lady Troubridge, 1887 – 1963)
John Lentell
11th September, 1969
Thursday’s Piece
“……
And I, which was two fooles, do so grow three;
Who are a little wise, the best fooles bee.”
(From The Triple Foole, poem by John Donne, 1572 – 1631)
John Lentell
10th September, 1969
Lentell Soup 