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Welcome, Little New Year!
Although I have long since given up any idea of putting anything in it except professional engagements and phone numbers, I still get a unique feeling when I flick through the crisp, white, empty pages of a new diary. After putting in my early assignments, I invariably look through it until I come to the later pages and wonder what I will be doing in November or December. Where shall I be then? Honolulu - or Huddersfield! What will I be doing? Television - or Time!
For me the fallibility of human determination is well illustrated by the fate of so many new diaries. We have all started to keep one at least once, and the first page is usually written in our finest copperplate handwriting. January the First is really given the treatment. We leave out nothing, starting with the breakfast we couldn't face owing to the customary New Year's Day hangover, and ending with the exact time we went to bed. The lines between are crammed full of fascinating information such as the details of all our other meals and the exact nature of the compliment that the managing director paid us. If we happen to be in love, the glowing description of our inamorata is written with such a fiery pen that it is a wonder that the pages do not burst into flame. We are filled with an ambition (it seems) to become a 20th-century Pepys.
Yet only nine days later what do we find? The tenth of Jan. looks desolate, its lines are cold and bare, save for just five lonely words which sit sadly on their own.
"Work - Met a Smasher - Phew!"
In case I have depressed you, let me remind you that a New Year brings all sorts of new and exciting possibilities. And let me recall the story of the fairies who were invited to the christening feast of the new baby and each brought as gifts some happy quality to be added to the infant's character and destiny. One fairy, of course, wasn't invited (she probably hadn't got the right agent) and took it out on the poor child by arranging that if she ever used a spinning-wheel she would one day prick her finger and as a result would be plunged into a deep sleep for a hundred years. Which, of course, she did, and was.
Now, let us hope that the fairies attending the celebrations connected with the arrival of young 1958 are all benevolent and give to the New Year qualities which we shall all appreciate. And if the little dears personify these qualities themselves, then the youngster's debut should be a gay and propitious one. First we should invite PEACE:
The serene countenance of the fairy able to bestow this incalculable blessing would grace any occasion. We all know that no visitor would be more welcome.
PROSPERITY, too, must be there, as richly endowed, as warm and bounteous as the plenty that she offers:
And the third V.I.P. would be GOOD HEALTH:
Glowing, radiant, she would simply have to be there, for without her how could the benefits lavished by her three sweet sisters be really enjoyed?
It these three accept the invitation, then with any luck they will bring with them their golden, glorious companion, the one desired by all - wonderful, shining HAPPINESS:
So a Happy New Year to you all!
- o 0 o -
I can't understand why the Russians are so unfriendly .
Two drinks of vodka and I like everybody.
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