I think the Rhodesian Front might lose a vote or two if it came clean with the electorate about the likelihood of an economic ‘long-haul’!
John Lentell
10th April, 1969
Wednesday’s Piece
In the best of times there is a gap between the intelligence information that a Prime Minister and his cabinet deal with daily and the public’s grasp of events as reported by the media but, in Rhodesdia, this gap has, in my view, become too wide.
John Lentell
9th April, 1969
Tuesday’s Piece
“There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.”
(Oscar Wilde, 1854 – 1900)
John Lentell
8th April, 1969
Monday’s Piece
“…..descending incontinently, fecklessly, the stairway which leads to a dark gulf. It is a fine broad stairway at the beginning, but after a bit the carpet ends. A little farther on there are only flag stones, and a little farther on still, these flag stones break beneath your feet.”
(Speech in the House of Commons 1938, 12 days after the Anschluss, the Nazi annexation of Austria by Winston Churchill, 1874 – 1965)
John Lentell
7th April, 1969
Sunday’s Piece
“Papa, what is a traitor in politics?”
“A traitor is a man who leaves our party and goes over to the other one.”
“Well, than, what is a man who leaves his party and comes over to yours?”
“A convert, my boy.”
John Lentell
5th April, 1969
Saturday’s Piece
“……….the never ending audacity of elected persons.”
(Walt Whitman, 1819 – 1892)
John Lentell
4th April, 1969
Friday’s Piece
“Amantium irae amoris integratio est.”
(The quarrels of lovers are the renewal of love)
(Terence, 195-159 B.C.)
John Lentell
3rd April, 1969
Thursday’s Piece
“He in whom the love of truth predominates….submits to the inconvenience of suspense and imperfect opinion, but he is a candidate for truth….and respects the highest law of his being.”
(Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1803 – 1882)
John Lentell
2nd April, 1969
Wednesday’s Piece
“Night’s candles are burnt out, and jocund day
Stands tiptoe on the misty mountain tops.”
(From Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, 1564 – 1616)
John Lentell
1st April, 1969
Tuesday’s Piece
“….for righteous monarchs,
Justly to judge with their own eyes should see;
To rule o’er freemen, should themselves be free.”
(Henry Brooke, 1703 – 1783)
John Lentell
31st March, 1969
Monday’s Piece
“I don’t know why Connie works so hard,” said a friend, “after all she can’t take with her.”
“If Connie can’t take it with her,” replied one of Miss Bennett’s sisters grimly, “she won’t go.”
John Lentell
30th March, 1969
Sunday’s Piece
“Beauties in vain their pretty eyes may roll;
Charms strike the sight, but merity wins the soul.”
(Alexander Pope, 1688 -1744)
John Lentell
29th March, 1969
Saturday’s Piece
“Deign on the passing world to turn thine eyes,
And pause awhile from letters, to be wise;
There mark what ills the scholar’s life assail,
Toil, envy, want, the patron and the jail,
See nations slowly wise, and meanly just,
To buried merit raise the tardy bust.”
(From The Vanity of Human Wishes by Samuel Johnson, 1709 – 1784)
John Lentell
28th March, 1969
Friday’s Piece
“I have observed a number of superficially contented men and women, and I maintain they are dangerous. Personally, I am glad to say there a lot of things today with which I am not contented. I am not contented with myself, I am not contented with the development of my character, and with my literary career. And there seems to me very little ground for general contentment. I must repeat – I fear the contented man. I fear him because there is no progress unless there is discontent. Without it today, I even believe, there can be no inner peace of mind.
(John P. Marquand, 1893 – 1960)
John Lentell
27th March, 1969
Thursday’s Piece
“All nature is but art unknown to thee;
All chance, direction which thou canst not see
All discord, harmony not understood,
All partial evil, universal good:
And, spite of pride, in erring reason’s spite,
One truth is clear, Whatever is, is right.”
(From Essay on Man by “Alexander Pope, 1688 – 1744)
John Lentell
26th March, 1969
Wednesday’s Piece
(Submitted to the Rhodesia Herald by JL but rejected for publication, i.e. censored)
I believe it is called ‘Journalistic Licence’ when a newspaper does what the Sunday Herald did to the M’kudu story on Sunday last (see also yesterday’s Rhodesia Herald) – slipping in to headlines and text inflammatory words like “Mau Mau” which excite interest. I think it stinks and, significantly, I am reminded of the infamous Rhodesian Front black/white ‘school legs’ advertisement of November (1962?). If I were Mr. M’kudu I would protest most vigorously.
John Lentell
25th March, 1969
Tuesday’s Piece
“There was a young lady of Lynn
Who was so uncommonly thin
That when she essayed
To drink lemonade
She slipped through the straw and fell in.”
(Anonymous)
John Lentell
24th March, 1969
Monday’s Piece
“Love took up the glass of Time, and turn’d it in his glowing hands;
Every moment, lightly shaken, ran itself in golden sands.
Love took up the harp of Life, and smote on all the chords with might;
Smote the chord of Self, that, trembling, pass’d in music out of sight.”
(From Locksley Hall by Tennyson, 1809 – 1892)
John Lentell
23rd March, 1969
Sunday’s Piece
I didn’t mean it, I didn’t mean it. I didn’t mean it!!! That one on Friday about women. I just thought it was amusing and it was written something like 250 years ago! Here’s one about men to even the score:
“Men,” mused Miss Meekina, “men are just like eggs – they’re fresh, rotten and hard boiled.”
John Lentell
22nd March, 1969
Saturday’s Piece
“If all the earth were paper white
And all the sea were ink
‘Twere not enough for me to write
As my poor heart doth think.”
(John Lyly, 1554 – 1606)
John Lentell
21st March, 1969
Lentell Soup 