One of our large restaurants is printing on its menus the actual weight of meat used in each dish. In others, fish is being put on the table accompanied by its own scales. *** We are requested to carry home our own purchases, and one of the firms for whom we feel sorry is Messrs. FURNESS, WITHY & COMPANY, of Liverpool, who have just purchased Passage Docks, Cork. *** Australia by organising her Commonwealth Loan Group, once again lives up to her motto, "Advance, Australia." *** The Coroner of East Essex having set the example of keeping pigs in his rose garden, it is rumoured that _The Daily Mail_ contemplates offering a huge prize for a Standard Rose-Scented Pig. *** To be in line with many of our contemporaries we are able to state definitely that the War is bound to come to an end, though we have not yet fixed on the exact date. * * * * * [Illustration: FOOD DEVELOPMENT IN THE PARKS. A FORECAST OF NEXT VALENTINE'S DAY. _Spinster_ (_reads_). "Dearest, meet me by the scarecrow in Hyde Park."] * * * * * AIR-CASTLES. When I grow up to be a man and wear whate'er I please, Black-cloth and serge and Harris-tweed--I will have none of these; For shaggy men wear Harris-tweed, so Harris-tweed won't do, And fat commercial travellers are dressed in dingy blue; Lack-lustre black to lawyers leave and sad souls in the City, But I'll wear Linsey-Woolsey because it sounds so pretty. I don't know what it looks like, I don't know how it feels, But Linsey-Woolsey to my fancy Prettily appeals. And when I find a lovely maid to settle all my cash on, She will be much too beautiful to need the gauds of fashion. No tinted tulle or taffeta, no silk or crepe-de-chine Will the maiden of my fancy wear--no chiffon, no sateen, No muslin, no embroidery, no lace of costly price, But she'll be clad in Dimity because it sounds so nice. I don't know what it looks like, I do not know its feel, But a dimpled maid in Dimity Was ever my ideal. * * * * * THE LAST MENU CARD. "To-day is one of the great moments of history. Germany's last card is on the table. It is war to the knife. Either she starves Great Britain or Great Britain starves her." _Mr. Curtin in "The Times."_ Mr. CURTIN has lost a great chance for talking of "War to the knife-and-fork." Possibly he was away in Germany at the time when this _jeu d'esprit_ was invented. * * * * * "The Canadian papers are unanimous that the German peace proposals are premature, and will be refused saskatoon." _Examiner_ (_Launceston, Tasmania_). We had not heard before that Germany had asked for Saskatoon, but anyway we are glad she is not going to get it. * * * * * From a schoolgirl's essay:--