Zurich Herald, 1957-03-28, Page 7Woman Hit By
A Flying Cow
Several folk living in Bad Axe,
Michigan, say they have sighted
"flying saucers." But ,recently
one resident in this tiny commu-
nity:,-„ 62;year-old Mrs. Janet
Whittaker', encountered a flying
cow!
Setting off on a shopping ex-
pedition, she heard a sudden thud
as she came round a bend and
the next instant a huge cow de-
scended on her;
Petrified, she had no chance of
side=stepping and the cow, hit by
a car, crashed full tilt into her
knees. But luckily she sustained
only slight injuries. No bones
were broken.
Traffie accidents involving ani-
mals often take strange turns. In
this country, according to the
Royal Society for the Preven-
tion of Accidents' report, per-
sonal injury accidents caused by
dogs average 2,600 a year. And
as the Highway Code warns "the
presence of dogs and other ani-
mals in the carriageway contri-
butes towards the 4,000 personal
injury accidents a year." This
is in Great Britain alone.
Pet owners should be more
alert and careful. And motorists
should know more about animal
reactionswhen caught in the
traffic. Chickens nervously fol-
low a single instinct when sur-
prised by a car: they dash
straight for home. Horses and
ponies, which seem quiet, may
be thoroughly startled if ap-
proached too close and theymay
swing without warning straight
into a car's path.
Cows, being sluggish -minded,
often behave very stupidly. And
a solitary sheep, left stranded
on one side of the road, with the
flock on the other, merits extra
cauion. For, seeing a mechanical
monster appreeching, the animal
may panic and scamper across
the road to rejoin its companions.
When, in April last year, the
Queen attended the West Nor-
folk Hunt's point-to-point meet-
ing at Sporle, two races ended
with a riderless horse galloping
out of the main gate and career-
ing wildly along the main Swaff-
ham road.
In the first instance, two
R.S.P.C.A.-inspecotrs gave chase
in tie-eir van. But...P.C. Thomas
Bokeham raced ahead of them
on his motor -cycle. Very skil-
fullee . he: managed to catch the
hunter by the reins with one
hand, whlie with the other, he
steered his machine.
He then rode alongside the
runaway, talking soothingly to it
all the time, until the, horse
calmed down and trotted to a
standstill. Half an hour later,
when another riderless racehorse
bolted, P.C. Bokeham again gave
chase and, using the same tech-
nique, made a second capture,
without injury to himself or to
the horse.
It was bad luck for a York-
shire milkman of Wibsey, near
Bradford, when his ten -year-old
ODD EGG - The hen that laid
this egg apparently grew tired
of her anonymous contributions
to humanity. So here it is, com-
plete with monogram.
mare suddenly bolted. She raced
off the main road, the milk cart
swaying crazily behind her, and
charged down a narrow lane:
The cart overturned, bottles
smashed and mills whitened the
wreckage. The horse, now free,
cleared a.four-foot-high. stone
wall and M1 six feet into a cel-
lar entrance. There she was
wedged, with her left hind leg
trapped and in danger elf being
broken.
,Arrivingly quickly on the
scene, policemen, firemen and an
R.S.P,C.A. inspector placed rub-
ber fire hoses beneath her and
lifted her forward into a more
natural position to ease the strain
on her back leg. Then, using a
special lifting apparatus, they'
raised her bodily from the cellar
entrance into which she had
plunged. The entire rescue op-
eration lasted an hour and twen-
ty minutes. The horse was saved
from injuries which might easily
have necessitated its being de-
stroyed. But the residents were
not at all happy at seeing their
breakfast milk splashed all over
the road.
Drives Eight Miles
With Eyes Shut
What's happening to the wink
- the deliberate wink which
was once so frequently exchang-
ed between young men and
women? It is losing popularity
all over Europe, declares a
French expert on courtship and
marriage.
"Many a love affair used to
begin with a wink, but you rare-
ly see a man wink at a girl nowa-
days," he says. "As for a girl
winking at a man - this just
isn't done any more, not even
in France! But in the 'twenties
of this century such winks be-
tween the sexes were very
popular."
Perhaps he's right. When did
you last wink deliberately at an-
other person, or see a wink ex-
changed between a young couple?
Lots of schoolboys still wink in
play, but even this type of wink-
ing is much less often seen than
it was a quarter of a century ago.
Involuntary winking, or blink-
ing, is as universal as ever. Ever
tried to see how long you could
go without winking? You'll find
it very difficult to carry on for
more thanea;;ininute or two, and
very uncomfortable.
Yet Miss -Maryan Curtis, a
lovely U.S. brunette, won a bet
of nearly $1000 for - as the
judges put it - "maintaining a
fixed stare for twenty-four hours
without moving an eyelid."
To scientists a 'wink is an op-
eration of the eye which requires
one-fifth of a second and occurs
twenty-five times a minute.
Therefore, if you drive at an
average of 20 m.p.h. for five
hours, you will drive eight and
a third miles with your eyes
shut!
This winking business, you see,
is necessary. It's Nature's way of
keeping your eye -balls clean,
moist and comfortable.
Some people wink more often
than others. A nervous person
winks most. It is calculated that
his eyelids travel about 25,000
inches a day. Women tend to
blink less than men.
It's considered wicked to wink
deliverately in Falco, Alabama.
If a woman's rapid winking is
mistaken for saucy winking, she
can - under a local by-law - be
arrested and fined.
OPERATION WHISTLE
During an operation to remove
six-year-old David Anderson's
tonsils, the surgeon found a
small, plastic whistle lodged be-
hind one of the boy's tonsils.
Questioning the boy's mother
later, the surgeon learned that
David had swallowed the whistle
some months previous but it gave
him no bother. "He did snore
with a peculiar sound, though,"
she added.
CROSSWORD
PUZZLE
ACROSS 2. Barber's call
3. Be overfond of
4. Band of color
6. Finished edge
6. 1st Hebrew
letter
?. Sort
8. Caress
9. Of the ear
1. Together with
4. Rough matted
hair •
8. Outdoor game
12. George (ab.)
13. Device for
measuring
distances
16. Rooting out
1?. Cubic meter
18. Sport
19. Bashful
20. Hiatus
22 Jurisdiction
(Early Eng.)
24. Curve.
2?. Young goat
29. Song bird •
33. Spirit
35. (:nuking
vessel
17. Caliber
38. Remove dirt
40. Receive
42. Moisten
43. River barrier
45, 3d king of
Judah
4?. Pagoda
60. Recentl;v
acquired
12. Elijah
36• Want of
agreement
89. Thickens
10. Cardinal
number
il. 'Body joint
it. Fencing ewer
iE. Seaweed
WM
1. Grows old
10. Cotton tabrlc
li. wild revelry
14. Landed estate
16. Unit of work
21. Apple seed
23. Male swan
24. Donkey
25. Paddle
26. Intimation
28. Canine
30. Acknowledge
applause
31. Anger
32. Clear gain
34. W ent first
36. Supper
39. Kind of velvet
41. African 11y
44. Intervening
(law)
46. Malt liquor
47. Sound of a
clock
48. Soon
49. Skin disease
51. straHwandful o1
63. To a point
inside
54. Maple genus
55. "Auld Lang
5?. Poem
68. Behold
1
2
3
..•,';4
4 :