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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Seaforth News, 1962-04-26, Page 6Northern Cplbins And <$Ied-Dogs %nee b'red's project that year was a documentary film of life in an Eskimo village from freeze- up in fall until the break-up in spring, and since I worked with him, I soon began to share the respect and warm regard for the Eskimos held by my new hus- band. I felt the same reluctance lie did when the time came to leave Unalakleet and Alaska for lecture tours with the movie, And the same eagerness to re- turn to Alaska, after each season ended, for more filming, more writing, more painting, and to search out a location for a home. We found what we werelook- ing for in the Matanuska Valley, Here, to us, was the most ap- pealing scenery in all Alaska. We. selected the view we liked the best, centered It in a picture window and built a log cabin around the window. The fact that it happened to be in the :heart of three thousand acres of forest was surplus good fortune, es was the fact that it overlooked a perfect blue lake, There was stilt another inci- dent that upped our fortunes from merely good to that of ex- traordinary, While looking for our home - site, we had bogged down on an unfrequented narrow lane, We had hiked to the nearest farm for help and had come away not only with a farmer on a tractor but with a handsome white sled - dog puppy. Neither Fred nor I had known we wanted a dog until we saw this one leaping straight into the air and howling to go with us. Suddenly we had wondered what the fun was, living in a tent (which we were doing while building our home) without a dog? . We called the puppy Seegoo because that was the Eskimo word for ice and December first — a time of ice — was his birth- day. The dabin was finished as win- ter set in and we took possession. And Seegoo? He took possession of the high ridge upon which the cabin sat, for he was now a gangling adolescent with her- oic ideas of protecting his master and mistress from the porcupines and announcing in loud clear barks when noose and bear were about, so his master and mistress could protect him if they wanted to. Seegoo was ever faithful, ROAD DEMONS — Vic Jowers and Alaine Haubert try to hitch a ride on the Watson- ville Santa ' Cruz freeway in California. It was a promo- tional stunt to focus attention on his outdoor theatre, which was denied a permit to run. When his master and mistrese found It necessary to leave he always watched the spot thea* had last been seen, until they returned.. Seegoo was gentle. From humans he wanted Only affection, nor did he pleasure in fighting his own kind. Were he attacked, he would fight, but mostly happy trying to please — both humans and dogs. Seegoo was adaptable. When the lecture tours came around, he would walk across lobbies and into elevators with as much aplomb as if he were on the snow carpeted floor of a spruce forest, He appeared on television and on the lecture platform 'and instead of becom- ing spoiled, he accepted the ad- ulation Of his audience with kindly dignity, In one month he would total as many miles of travel by auto as other sled- dogs would average in a lifetime on trail. --From "The Howl of the Malamute: The Story of an Alaskan Winter," by Sara Ma- chetanz, Looks Like Time Lady Stayed Home Anything India could do for Jacqueline Kennedy, Pakistan was convinced it could do better. The Pakistanis could scarcely match India's "Holi" festivities, when Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and Mrs. Kennedy ob- • served' the ritual of daubing each other's foreheads with red paint. But the Pakistanis had their own Republic Day, and more than 100,000 of them turn- ed out in the streets to cheer the First Lady when she arrived last month in Rawalpindi. India had provided Mrs, Kennedy with her first ride on a rouged and golden -tusked elephant named Bibi!. ("What fun!" said Mrs. Kennedy.) But President Ayub Khan knew that Mrs. Kennedy's true love is horses, and he took her to one of the most specta- cular horse shows in the world. Ayub escorted her to the stadi- um in Lahore in a state coach drawn by six gleaming bays with red tassels on their manes, The show itself included a camel that did rock 'n' roll and a troop of dancing horses that Mrs. Ken- nedy pronounced "beautiful and fascinating," As a finale, Ayub gave her a ten -year-old bay gelding named Sardar (chief)— thereby topping India's gift of tiger cubs, both of which have since died of enteritis. After riding Sardar, Mrs. Kennedy said: "No one is going to be al- lowed to ride him but me." Amid such pomp . and circus dance, the heavy pressures of the tour inevitably caused some strains. Stephen Barber'ofThe London Telegraph said' the trip "has fizzled miserably," and Wel- les Hangen of NBC, who was for bidden to cover Mrs. Kennedy's elephant ride from the top of an- other specially rented elephant, called it "far from a smash hit." Their criticism reflected a con- cern, felt more by visitors than hosts, that Mrs. Kennedy had seen only the pageantry of the Indian subcontinent, not its po- verty. Mrs. Kennedy herself, obvious- ly tired at times, canceled a sight-seeing tour of Lahore and a lunch among the ruins in Taxila.. One day, she overslept while thousands of Pakistani school children patiently awaited her for three hours. On one occa- sion when Mrs. Kennedy got away from her security men for a motorboat ride in Udaipur, the spotted some children and said: "Let's get out and speak to them before they think up some reason why we can't." But U.S. officials feared the children might 'jostle Mrs, Kennedy and knock her into the water, so the First Lady just waved at them _as the motorboat sped on. GLASS BALLET — Sketch of this octagon -shaped building shows the future home of England's, Ram'i,ert Ballet. It will be a beacon of light at night in London, Wiii seat 1,100. WINS FINALS — Janis Martin, 23, is shown with Metropoli- tan Opera general manager Rudolph Bing, after winning the Met's 1962 audition finals. This mezzo-soprano receives a scholarship and a contract to appear with the company during the coming season. HRONICLE T61NGERFARM� My address — still the same. The date — of that I'm not., euro, except that it''e near the end of March. The day, - Sunday. And the time — six -thirty A.M. In the hospital the activities of the day are just beginning. In some rooms patients are talking back and forth to each other; in other nurses are plunging thter- mometers into the mouths of sleeping patients. Outside the sun is shining; birds are flitting to and fro — apparently "God's in his Heaven — all's right with the world". If only it were so. Unfortunately we know it isn't. I haven't read a newspaper in over three, weeks — can't concentrate — but I have my radio and man- age to listen to the news two or three times a day — that is, with interruptions. Being in hospital isn't like it tised to be years ago. Patients now are encouraged to be up and around as much as possible. So we wander up and down the hall at will and visit in each other's rooms. It breaks. the monotony but it also makes it impossible for a person to con- centrate on reading, writing or even thinking. There are also ether interruptions. Lunch and supper trays — very welcome, of course.— but so often just as the lunch tray arrives, so does the doctor —' I often wonder when the doctors eat — afternoon tea nearly always coincides with vis- itors. Breakfast is my 'favourite meal of the day, at home or in hospital. '1 just,long for my'toast• and coffee. My, but there's a lot to:see and • learn in a hospital. The .patients that* come 'and go, their charac- teristies, appealing or otherwise. They are all interesting. When I go down for X-ray -1 am some - .times left for ome.timesleft.for awhile in the corri- dor. But I don't stay • there, I 'trundle my chair around and , take a peek at the emergency ward; the laundry; the labora- tory and the admitting office: I want to know as much as I can, inside and out. And why not? After all, about four doctors and six nurses wait to know ME in- side and out! Surely what is sauce for the goose is also sauce for the gander. And the things doctors say. The other day I was on the operating table, more or less under the influence of a Sedative, but still very much alive and alert. Suddenly I start- ed to chuckle — 'that was as much as I could manage. I couldn't "shake" with laughter because I was strapped down by my hands and feet, But I did manage to chuckle, and this was why . . suddenly my surgeon said: "Now, Mrs, Clarke, shut your mouth!" He meant it liter- ally but maybe he was glad of an excuse,to say itl Well, 1 'have just got through talking to Partner, He says if I don't soon get horne he'll be a pa- tient in hospital himself! Appa- rently ,he has been quite busy — washing and waxing floors, cleaning windows and tidying up the front porch — also baby-sit- ting, I asked if Taffy and Ditto seem to miss me and he said Taffy goes running into my bed- room first thing every morning to see if I am there. Ditto has started her springtime habits ISSUE 15— 1968 wants to sleep all day and stay out all night. That we don't al- low but occasionally Partner goes to bed and then gets up in the middle of the night to let her in. I am sure that pleases him im- mensely. The other day he went grocery shopping at Cloverdale, Mali and almost got himself lost. Shopping is one thing Partner isn't used to but I guess he wanted to do it just to shote that he could. When I get home we'll he fighting about who's to do what. My room -mate and I listened to the hockey last night — to that last big tussle between the Leafs and Detroit. Thank good- ness I shall be hone to watch the play-offs on T.V. After three weeks without it I know now how lost Partner and I would be without it — even though we sometimes disagree in our choice of pragrams. However, for a lit- tle while at Ieast, when Partner has his -"westerns" 1 can go to my desk and get a few "thank -you" cards cards and letters written. Flattery is the most profitable form of lying. At A World Language Every now'and then somebody suggests that everyone should learn Esperanto or some other synthetic international langt '' e so all could understand one other, Well, they are toy late. An international language al- ready exists, understood to some degree by 600,000,000` people ow all continents. It is the English language, Two years ago, 'this corres- pondent remarked, in a column, that in interviewing nine na- tional leaders in nine nations of Asia and Africa, seven of the in- terviews were conducted in Eng- lish, Yes, Messrs. Nasser, Su- karno, Nehru, Kshi, Nkrumah, Abdul Rahman, 11 Nu, 13en- Gurion, ail converse ably in Eng- lish, Now scholarly Lincoln- Bar- nett, writing in Life magazine, reminds us how far and fast English has spread in our own lifetime. Tire Soviets and Chi-. nese even use English in their best broadcasts to tite Far East and Africa. The Bandung con- ference of neutrals was conduct-, ed in English. I knew o1 an Is- raeli conference .of Afro - Asian experts on co-operatives which. had to he held in English. That wastime. one language everybody — or almost everybody' — un- derstood. English is the language used by international pilots and air- port control towers in all parts of the world. It also is used by airline stewardesses more often than any other because most tourists know some English — and because some Americans do not know any other language. It has surpassed French as the No. 1 language of international diplomacy. In Poland people would as soon study English as German or Russian, because it offers the best "window on the West." In Indo- nesia when the inhabitants said goodbye to the Dutch — and their language — they welcomed the English language into their schools. When Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru met the Dalai Lama fleeing from Tibet, they conversed in English. Why this recent wartime and postwar spread of English? For one thing, it had a kind of head start. The British had carried English with them through all their vast colonial empire — to India, Burma, Nigeria, Egypt, and Malaya. Then, too, the Eng- ,lish were great traders and used their own language in commer- cial transactions. And of course, once a language gets going and is widely accepted, others want to learn it to be in on the con- versation, so to speak, writes William H. Stringer in the Chris- tian Science Monitor. English is an especially vital lan'L•age (maybe because Ameri- cans speak it). Anyway its words have penetrated all sort of for- eign tongues, from beisbol in Russia, to le jazz in French. In Musee'W tithes eeesespetnterel1 tee ted a sereeltecoiroau seem c vrdentj- by for luz,d'eeteiians, viieielbl 11!41 Acer at bobarvalia. It, emit. lin, due tem Cron "'Veleell, 1. asktod, ins, mint tcoebst: ga;t'ida; "docs, thee seer "lire eke Ehglitln weeell Wee"' slue replied, ""Aundl' l4 means sifipl" Leaurro a, eel itrabl cone' o'll 1,0011 words and Qhde, Cale all elle bath! weed's of conversation, A't leastr so foreign sol'diens studying it tee United States have, dieeov. eyed. Leave out most) 1.1' the uce,rbs and a person still sen rook!, hit .'el' c' •• Some persons have been de' eeived into thinking that one face tor in the spread of English is however, wrong on two grounis. The first is that opportunity and availability are far more impar• tont factors in the spread of lan- guage. The second point is that Eng- lish speech, far from being sim- ple, is one of the most compli- catee tongues of the advanced modern world. True, it is one of the easiest of languages to be- gin speaking. But it is one of the hardest to speak well. Beside it, French - and German are models of ease, eider, and logicality, The United States helps along this swing to E leg bis h. The Muted States Information Sery te'a has • 389 cultural centers in some 80 countries, and in most of them are English - language libraries and courses in English to be had for the asking. Does all of this data give an American a mellow feeling? He got in on the ground floor — knew the language from infancy. Other languages, however, have their great roles - French, a mark of culture, anywhere; Rus- sian, in which many scientli+ie• treatises are published, and so on and en. But it is also significant that, English has been the language• vehicle for expressing some of mankind's most spiritoall con- cepts, beginning, with that grand masterpiece, the King emcees. Version of the Bibio.. Q. Is it correct to have one's: monogram engraved on the en- velope of social stationery?' A. No; the monogram slioisdd, be engraved only on the note- paper itself. -SALLY'S sariliS "They're love birds, you know. so I'm giving them some privacy." Iii II 1Illll1ll1111l(IIIIIiloli�Niil uulpluq ilplq,0;Vlll�„„10ll�dI I 1 i1bII�uglio�I1Bi0' ii,l 111 1011 III Il�l� bhllslN�tjersllire! III Illlllll 111 mail„qI Ir 111110011A01,1-01! RHEINSTEJN CASTLE, near Bingen Rhine; Narrows afford excellent view of German' 'a romantic Rhine region. Photo courtesy of Llis'I'OIANSt C” iivIAN AiILINIiS