Gotta Sell Those Hats!

       There's always another day in Tahiti. Apropos of the natives' light regard for time, Mrs. Winkelstroetter tells us of the boat from the Austral Islands that was about to return to that group when an old lady objected:

     "But, Captain, just wait a little. I have ten hats to sell yet."

     So he postponed sailing until the next day.

     But she still had seven hats to sell. Sailing was put off from day to day. Each morning the captain and passengers would assemble ready to depart. The old lady would complain and the boat would lie over. So it went for a week.

     "Now really," the captain said, "I must sail. Haven't you sold all your hats?"

     "All but one - but it is a very ugly one and nobody will buy it."

     The captain pulled out ten francs.

     "I'll buy it myself,"

     He did, and thanks to this prompt and decisive action on his part, the boat sailed only a week late.

Reference:  Willard Price (1955), Adventures in Paradise, quoted in The Wild World Magazine Oct 1956 (Australia), Sept. 1956 (UK), p x

An Island Without Wheels

     For twenty years before I was married I travelled the world - from Greenland to Madagascar to Easter Island. Even so, I had the constant feeling that I had come in too late. Everywhere was starting to look like Everywhere Else. For example, I shall probably never get a chance to visit Madeira, but I see from Google Earth that its capital, Funchal now has normal roads, with normal cars to run on them. Now, if I had arrived 110 years ago, I wouldn't even have found a horse and buggy.