Renate Dittmann

Don’t Get Shirty

It's no good rushing up and down the stairs and shouting your head off when you find your sister, or your wife has nicked your best shirt and is wearing it at the Festival of Flowers.

Women, especially sisters and wives, don't respond at all these days to men getting noisily shirty. Gone are the times when the little woman or the doting sister flinched and cowered at the mere sound of the brute. Lay a hand on your sister these days and you'll likely end up looking like the well-worn end of a Chinese puzzle. Put the lightest finger on your wife and you could find yourself scarred for life. Someone's been teaching them to fight back.

The boyfriend of RENATE DITTMAN is wise enough to know that whenever Renate borrows any shirt of his it's better for him to laugh it off. "My goodness," gasped Renate, "where's that shirt I was wearing?" “ I laughed it off," says he.

"Oh, clever stuff, hein?" says Renate, and punches him in the eye.