Australian Women's Weekly (1933 - 1982), Wednesday 20 November 1957, page 34


Worth Reporting

DYNAMIC Mrs. Dita

Cobb, founder of Overweights Anonymous in Sydney, is following the success of O.A. by form-ing another club for

women with a common in-

terest.

This time it is to be called the Stork Club, and all the members will be expectant

mothers.

"I got the idea in a bus one day when I overheard two obviously expectant mothers discussing their problems,"

Mrs. Cobb said.

"It seemed to me there must be many like these two anxious to meet others facing the same problems as them-selves, who would listen to their 'baby' talk out of in-terest and not just out of politeness."

The result is the Stork Club, which will meet each week from November 28 at a Syd-ney department store to hear specialist advice on subjects ranging from diet to the latest thing in maternity fashions.

This pen is mightier them the pound

JJERE'S an example of ser-

vice.

Malcolm Ellis, noted Aus-tralian historian and biog-rapher of Lachlan Macquarie and John Macarthur, has writ-ten "The Torch-A Picture

of Legacy" for the Legacy

Movement.

Although he is working on a biography of William Charles Wentworth, he gave more than four months of his time - free - to write "The Torch," and all proceeds from the sale of the book will go to Legacy.

Like Mr. Ellis, Sydney publishers Angus and Robert-son have also given their ser-vices free, and will not make a penny from the publication

of the book.

Willow's pattern for a dress

'T*ALENTED young New

Zealander Willow Macky, a writer, poet, composer, and artist, is conducting a one woman campaign for a national costume and folk songs for her country.

Willow visited us while she was in Sydney arranging for the production of one of her songs, "Te Haranui, A New

Zealand Christmas Carol."

She told us that the national costume idea originated in New York when she repre-sented New Zealand in a Parade of the Nations held at

United Nations Headquarters.

"Standing in a spotlight,

daubed all over with suntan lotion and dressed as a Maori, I decided non-Maori New Zea-landers should have their own national dress," Willow said.

The one she has designed is a simple frock of white linen, made from New Zea-land flax, bordered at the neck and hem with handwoven Maori designs, and with a spray of fern embroidered

on the skirt.

When she returns home Willow hopes to persuade the Education Department to in-troduce the costume into New Zealand schools.

? * ?

QOME people have an in-

satiable urge to work out what things would be like if they weren't what they are.

For example, according to one genius, "a flea is so strong that if it were as large as a man it could drag two ele-phants round a football field."

Ok, well.

BULLETIN from America reports that a lot of G.I.s acquired a taste for exotic foods while serving overseas.

One ex-serviceman, a Mr. Ed Halpern, has found a way to satisfy his yen for Japanese delicacies. Among the item* he's put on the menu of his Philadelphia coffee shop are:

. Bumble bees in soya sauce. . Whole squid.

. Salted cherry blossoms.

. Diced whale skin.

Wanted: One pig,

standard size

JN Denmark, it seems that

the pig is practically a pampered pet.

And it's no wonder when you consider that tinned ham is one of the principal sources of revenue to the Danish canned-meat industry.

We've been reading an in-structive story on the subject in the Danish Foreign Office Journal.

"Danish pigs," it said, "are kept in ventilated sties which permit the right amount of exercise and the feeding of a balanced diet made up of grain and skim milk.

"The result is a standard-ised pig."

? ? ?

RUBY MILLER, a Gaiety

Girl of thc Edwardian era, gave a B.B.C. talk recently.

Said she, "I got engaged to a couple of viscounts and an earl. But one was Scottish, and when he told me that his piper would wake me in the morning at six o'clock I re-turned the ring."

Sassenach!

Man-size game of playing trains

\yOULD you be under-

standing enough to en-courage your husband while he fastened model-railway tracks to the dining-room

table?

Or transformed the kitchen into a workshop for miniature engines, carriages, and trucks?

"One of the first essentials for model-railway building is an understanding wife," says Gus Durham, secretary of the

Association of Pacemaker and Australian Railway Modellers.

To enthusiasts all over the

world, playing trains is any-thing but child's play.

One Sydney modeller, a doctor, has built an intricate electrically controlled railroad so big that it has to be housed in the basement of his home.

If you live in Sydney and are one of those people who just can't walk past a toy-shop window with a train in it, you're sure to enjoy the Aus-tralian Railway Modellers' Exhibition in the C.E.N.E.F. Auditorium, 201 Castlereagh Street, on November 23.

Proceeds will aid the Smith Family, a Sydney charity.

Strings on her fingers

y^HEN Annette Macarthur

Onslow, of Camden, sail for England in January, th* chances are there'll be puppet "stowaways" in her luggage.

For while abroad Annette hopes to study puppet techn'

ques and theatres both in Eng-land and Europe.

Annette's interest in pup-pets began four years ago when she joined a small chib of puppet enthusiasts at East Sydney Technical College.

"As soon as I picked up a

control and tried to work a

puppet I knew I was a pup-peteer heart and soul," she

said.

Annette worked with Sy

ney cartoonist and puppeteer Norman Hetherington, givir g shows on TV and in ston Now she has dreams of brin

ing more sophisticated pu -pets before adult audiences.