Sideswipe: Anti-campervan protest in Westport

Jeff writes: "A campervan user gets fined for parking over two spaces, but what about this car driver? This photo was taken on Monday at the Denniston incline near Westport. We stopped to use the picnic tables. The car was there all the time we sat at the table, at least 5 minutes. No driver in sight. The adjoining car park for had only two vehicles. I don't think this person likes campervans."

Do you suddenly feel like the loo visiting a bookstores?

In the mid-1980s, a woman named Mariko Aoki sent a letter to Japan's Hon no Zasshi, or Book Magazine, explaining a puzzling condition: whenever she entered a bookstore, her bowels suddenly seemed to leap to life. The magazine printed the letter in its February 1985 issue, and it soon became clear that she wasn't alone. Other readers mailed in letters detailing similar experiences. In Japan the phenomenon became known as Mariko Aoki. Decades later, a bookshop's mystifying ability to galvanise some people's gastrointestinal tracts into action isn't exactly being taught in medical schools and hasn't been scientifically proven. One hypothesis is that the ink or paper used in the manufacturing of some books could contain a laxative agent, while another idea is that our habit of reading on the toilet has conditioned our bodies to induce a development whenever we open a book. It has also been suggested that all the bending and squatting we do while scanning shelves and pausing to read a few pages could move things along in our intestines.

American gender reveals are getting out of control

Birth is the old school gender reveal party.

Strangeness of other families

1. I recently found out that "smooth a dog" is not a phrase known outside of my family. I've been asking if I can smooth* people's dogs for years. I'm 31.*pet/stroke
2. My parents are from Croatia and every time we'd go back to the old country for a visit the whole family would get new tracksuits. The plane was always full of Slavs so I thought everyone had to wear tracksuits while flying until I got to high school.
3. In our family, the boys got the leg meat from chickens and the girls got the breast pieces. I didn't realise this was weird until my boyfriend reached for a breast piece of chicken and my family gasped at his audacity.
4. Combo of my mother and father's quirks: my mom felt very strongly there should be no visible tv in the living room, and my father loves things to be "just so", so after every movie he would put the whole TV, remote and cords back into factory packaging. "Just like new!" he would say.
(Via Nicole Cliffe)

Save the implied bird slaughter

Katharine Brown of Auckland had a glorious weekend on Waiheke Island and met up with an old friend. My friend brought along her dog for his late afternoon walk and I commented to the kids at the end that we must combine a playdate and a dog walk next time we're on the island too - so we can "kill two birds with one stone". The kids were all horrified! Then so was I! We've been trying (unsuccessfully) to come up with an appropriate alternative for 2020. I'm hoping your readers might be able to help.