HIDDEN NEWSPAPER DELIGHTS

As regular readers of this Blog will know I love newspapers and hugely regret their collapse in readership. By newspapers I mean in their physical form, a great deal of which content doesn’t appear on their web-site. In particular I refer to the classified advertisements which contain endless delights.

Take the latest “Hutt News”. Under Public Notices a large display advertisement seeks, “Anyone 50 upwards who would be interested in forming a branch of 60 UPs in Lower Hutt, contact John”, this followed by a telephone number.

What next I wonder?

Calling for atheists interested in attending prayer meetings or ballerinas to form a body-building club…the mind boggles at the possibilities.

Mind you, this recalls a Glasgow University’s Psychology Department study back in the 1990s which garnered world-wide attention.

Curious as to why people join ludicrous losing causes their research discovered such organisations solely attracted social misfits. This was because their membership was so meagre they welcomed any new member effusively and so the lonely fat girl for the first time in her life found a welcoming home.

Back in its heyday, 40 plus years ago research showed the then booming Social Credit Party was built on this social misfit market. The same explanation is now proffered for the losers joining maori gangs, specifically they coming from such rotten home lives of neglect, for the first time in their lives they find a welcoming environment.

So who knows? The advertiser John seeking 50 year olds to form a 60 years old club may well attract some takers. I wonder if he will accept teenage applicants.