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THE COLBORNE EXPRESS, COI BORNE, ONT. NOV. 14, 1957 Official Mistakes Often Amusing After travelling all through )he night fittm Austria, the continental train came to a halt at I French station and railway >fficials announced: "We're making a 35-minute stop while we jhange engines." Tired passengers brightened jp at the prospect of stretching Bieir legs. Some even went through the barrier and strolled iown the sunny main street of Ihe little counry town. Among them was a bronzed young Briton in shorts, who had left his pretty sweetheart in their carriage while he bought & magazine. He was sauntering back on to the platform when, to his alarm, he heard a porter calling out "All aboard, pleaes!" Even as he ran towards the train, it began to move. He sprinted still faster and, with a flying leap, just managed to board the train as it gathered speed. "Done it!" he gasped. Then off he lurched through the train to find his fiancee. She was not there. In his haste and excitement he had leaped aboard a Paris-bound express. The train he had temporarily left had been shunted during his absence into a siding, while the fresh engine was being attached, to allow the Paris train to use the same platform. The Briton could speak no French, and his money and his passport were in the carriage of the Boulogne-bound train in which his anxious sweetheart vainly awaited his return. He explained his mistake to the English-speaking guard. "Very careless of you," was that official's comment. "You'll have to get another express from Paris to Boulogne. Sympathetic passengers, hearing -of the young man's error, rallied round and lent him the fare to Boulogne, which he reached late that evening. His worried fiancee had caught the boat to Folkestone, after leaving a message and his passport at the French Customs, so off he chased again. The pair were reunited the next afternoon. Official mistakes are sometimes amusing. Two or three minutes after an elegant $10,-000,000 post office was opened to the public in Pittsburgh, people began complaining that there was no posting box -- it had been forgotten by the architects. The dismayed postmaster quickly got in touch with them oniiiiresioh:----- ~ ' " ' There was a bank at Newbury-port, Mass., which once spent $2,500 in renovating a vacant home, only to find that the premises did not, after all, belong to them. Theirs were two doors away. An official bad slip- LIGHT MOMENT - Apparently completely at ease with her Churchill - sized stogie, British actress Brenda De Banzie accepts a light at Iver Heath, England. She was one of the stars celebrating the 21st anniversary of a British film company. ped up by mistaking the address when giving the decorators their instructions. In 1955 a letter from the BBC addressed to "His Worship the Mayor" arrived at an Essex town which had not had a mayor for more than sixty years. And the United States mint once coined eagles and double eagles ( ten and twenty dollar pieces) fatter in the middle than at the rim, with the result that the coins would not stack and had to be withdrawn. Bankers are always warning their clients about carelessness in writing cheques. The cashier of one company many years ago drew a cheque for £100, but when the cheque was presented at the bank it was for £8,100 and was unhesitantly paid as such. The company sued the bank but when the cheque was shown in court the judge at once decided in favour of the bank oi account of "gross carelessness' in drawing~the cheque. The space left between th< pound sign and the 100 was mor< than sufficient for the insertioi of another figure. , A historic instance of the cos of carelessness was the importation of the gipsy moth into North America. A mar. was experimenting with silk - producing caterpillars and left a parcel of eggs of the gipsy moth on the windoW-sill. A puff of wind blew the eggs into the garden. A few years later the woods round the district were black with these caterpillars and 400,-000 acres were infested. Half a million dollars were spent annually for fourteen years before the pests were finally wiped out. Railway officials once made an extraordinary mistake over a football match. More than 5,000 handbills and a score of large posters were distributed and displayed ,in Birmingham announcing an excursio train on the following day to Sheffield for an "Aston Villa v. Sheffield United match. But it was Birmingham City who were playing Sheffield. So station staffs were kept busy pasting strips over the posters with the word "Birmingham" replacing "Aston Villa," while the handbills had to be rubber-stamped "Birmingham." In Yorkshire, cabbages broccoli and tomato plants once sprang up all over a playing field, much to the local sportsmen's dismay. And lining the touch line was an attractive border of nasturtiums! What had happened? By mis-*°t^iicffen at an^ssexTeconcfary school were so enthusiastic about gathering items for a bring-and-buy sale in aid of school funds that they collected by mistake t woman teacher's raincoat. It was sold -- for half a crown. Said the headmaster afterwards: "The raincoat got mixed up with other things. Someone got a bargain -- a most suitable one as it was pouring with rain at the time of the sale." A reward was offered for the coat but it was never seen again. Foil Piepan Has Variety Of Uses Small aluminum piepans, such as those containing frozen pies, can be utilized in many ways around the house. Besides making bright waterproof coasters for flower vases, potted plants or beverage glasses, they can be inverted and molded into lids for small bowls, jars, cups and tumblers. They make fine emergency ash trays too, and can be folded together and discarded with the ashes still inside. When filled with water, the pans can be used to soak and remove stamps from envelopes. Several pans kept in a work shop are handy for sorting small parts. One can easily be bent into a cpout for pouring tacks and other small items back into their containers. In the garden, tie them to fruit trees to scare the birds. TO BE EXPECTED--Some autos and trucks are lined up c bottom of a hill as they're temporarily stymied by the good snowfall of the season. The overnight fall was estin ot from two to three inches. 'ROUND THE "WORLD"-The best of all possible Worlds is "Miss World^', shapely Marita Lindhal, 19, who tries on a dress at o Paris fashion shop. The young beauty is spending a few days in France on her way home to Finland after winning the title in London. TABLE TALKS w clatveAncbews. To cook green vegetables better and more easily, always start with fresh, boiling water. If vegetables are fresh, preheat by running hot water over them in a colander for about 30 seconds -- thus shortening cooking time (not necessary for a leafy vegetable such as spinach). This advice is from a pamphlet, "For Better Green Vegetables," by Arthur W. Dana, American Hotel Association food service end kitchen planning consultant, which was given food writers at their recent conference in Chicago. After peeling and trimming vegetables of the cabbage family -- brussel sprouts, broccoli, green cabbage, and asparagus, Mr. Dana suggests making a crisscross incision in the bottom of ui=u lu irozen vegeiaoies;. Tnese incisions will aid in equalizing cooking times of buds and stalks. Soak vegetables in cold, salted water for certain cleansing. If spinach or other leafy greens are fresh, they require several washings. If vegetables are frozen, it is important to defrost all types enough to separate units and pieces. Do this by allowing vegetables to stand at room temperature or by running a little warm water over them. Freezing tenderizes vegetables and makes possible a shortened cooking time which helps retain color, says Mr. Dana. Use plenty of water for cabbage-type vegetables; use the minimum amount of water for greens -- and just a little more for peas and beans. Greens (spinach) should be turned from top to bottom several times during their short cooking period to insure even cooking, advises Mr. Dana. At the food conference, Mrs. Rose Marie Pagborn, assistant specialist in the department of food technology at the University Of California, gave a report on sugar research at the university. She suggested that the home-maker, by using a sugar shaker as well as salt in cooking has an easy way of adding more interest and flavor to foods, whether they are sweet or not. "Small quantities of sugar have been known to improve the flavor of peas, corn, carrots, mashed potatoes, and tomato products," writes Eleanor Richey Johnston in The Christian Science Monitor. Have you ever tried adding a pinch of marjoram, thyme, or savory to a package of frozen mixed vegetables? Here are a few other ideas for pepping up vegetables: add a little chopped onion and celery to green beans; blend \\ cup of mayonnaise with 1 teaspoon prepared mustard as a sauce for broccoli or cauliflower; brown butter lightly and add to it some cracker crumbs as a topping for cauliflower; mix V*. cup sour cream with 2 tablespoons catsup and 1 teaspoon minced parsley and mix lightly with cauliflower; brown slivered, blanched almonds in butter and toss with succotash; or try some chopped, stuffed olives over buttered green peas. SPINACH RING WITH VEGETABLE SAUCE 3 cups cooked spinach Vi cup bread crumbs Vi teaspoon salt Vs teaspoon pepper Vi cup milk 2 eggs, beaten % cup slivered almonds Vi cup melted butter Break ^sterns from spinach •leaves; wash 3-4 times in generous amount of lukewarm water. Lift spinach out and place in pan, using only the water that clings to leaves; cook until tender -- about 5-10 minutes. Drain and chop. Blend with other ingredients and pack in buttered ring mold. Bake 45-60 minutes at 325 deg. F. Unmold on platter; surround alternately with slices of tomato and cucumber, or with sliced carrots. Serve with cream vegetable sauce. CREAM VEGETABLE SAUCE Vi cup flour 2 cups milk Vi cup diced cooked carrots Vi cup cooked peas Vz cup diced cooked celery. Melt butter in saucepan, add onion and cook until tender. Blend in flour. Add milk slowly stirring constantly and cook until sauce Is smooth and thicken- Note A Day Kept Wife Away For five years a doctor never spoke to his wife; he communicated with her only by notes or ed. Add remaining ingredients and heat thoroughly. Pour in center of spinach ring. Serves 6-8. In a talk at the food conference, Mabel Flanley, executive director of Processed Apples Institute, Inc., told food writers that a study in typical grocery stores has shown that apple sauce ranks first in canned food sales and has shown the biggest sales gain in the entire fruit line: homemakers are today using 66% more canned apple sauce an-anually than they did between 1946-1950. Better products and new recipes are two of the factors in this new popularity. Here is one of the new recipes for you. BAKED ACORN SQUASH WITH APPLE SAUCE FILLING 3 acorn squash 2 cups canned apple sauce Vi cup brown sugar 1 tablespoon lemon juice Vi cup seedless raisins M cup broken walnut meats 2 tablespoons butter Scrub squash; halve lengthwise remove seeds and stringy portions. Combine applesauce, sugar, lemon juice, raisins and nut meats. Place in squash halves. Dot with butter. Place squash in baking dish; add enough hot water to cover bottom of dish. Cover; bake at 400 deg. F. 45-60 minutes, or until squash is tender, removing cover after 20-30 minutes. Serves 6. Another combination of vegetable with apple sauce is this SWEET POTATO VOLCANOES 1 egg 2 cups mashed sweet potatoes 1 cup canned apple sauce 1 teaspoon nutmeg Vi cup cracker crumbs Vi teaspoon salt % cup melted butter 10 marshmallows Beat egg; add sweet potato, apple sauce, nutmeg, salt, cracker crumbs and butter; mix well. Shape in 10 mounds on greased baking sheet. Place marshmal-low on each. Bake at 400 deg. F. 10-15 minutes. «, Fix your baked potatoes this way some evening soon. BAKED POTATOES NEW ORLEANS 12 large potatoes 6 ounces butter 3 ounces hot cream Bake potatoes in the usual way. Cut potatoes in half lengthways and scoop out of shell. Mix cheese, butter and hot cream with potato. When mixture is smooth, refill potato shells with mixture and bake in hot oven until brown on top. through his children. During those years of silence more than a hundred notes were passed and most of them were abusive, bearing such heading as: "Nitwit," "Waster," and "Cracker Brain." The wife begged him to speak to her, but the doctor replied in a note that "We" -- meaning himself, of course -- "do not speak to people beneath us." Awarding the wife a decree of judicial separation recently, a divorce court judge said that the notes were ample evidence of her allegations of cruelty. This weapon of silence has been used in.a number of cases recently, and it has led to some amazing marital situations. Another husband, who never spoke to his wife for two years, was doing it "to show who was boss in the house," said a divorce court judge. They both vented their spite by firing off dozens of abusive notes to each other. Granting a decree nisi to the wife on the ground of cruelty, the judge said she might have been a person of somewhat uncontrolled and emotional disposition, but for that reason it behoved the husband to treat her with more than usual forbearance and understanding. WIFE OF THE CONQUEROR Matilda of Flanders was the wife of William the Conqueror and a descendant of Alfred the Great. She accepted William only after he tossed her into a puddle of mud. NO SOUR GRAPES--Wine goe» to the head of 13-year.old Gizella Balazs, who escaped from Hungary during the Red purge to make a new life in the United States. Now in Sonoma, California, she has fun balancing a bottle of wine on her head during a vintage festival. SATELLITES--While U.S. scientists are busy building a space satellite, other Americans have come up with their answers to Russia's Sputnik and the eventual ©ccupation of the moon. "Spud-nik", right, is the work of junior grade scientists George McFad-den, left in photo, and George Tate. The boyi use 32-ounce potatoes for ammunition. "Star-nik", below right, is a sparkling Christmas decoration. It can easily be made at home with a set of tree lights, wood sticks piercing a plastic foam sphere and steel wool twisted all around. The moon-watcher is June Pickney. Staking out an early claim on the moon is R. W. Scott, below left, real estate broker. Scott has just received a charter from the State of Georgia to form a corporation which will sell plots of land on the moon and other planets as soon as man reaches, them.