A reader writes: "I was watching a real-estate ad for this house ... panning through the kitchen the voice-over referred to the "social peninsula". The what? That's what they're calling the breakfast bar now. Give me strength. Apparently, a kitchen peninsulais like an island but an extension of the existing kitchen cabinets and counters, rather than a free-standing. Calling it a social peninsula is pure real-estate jargon."
Kissing ban
Imogene Rechtin was your classic germophobe. Women often greeted each other with a short kiss on the lips, and some people even kissed both cheeks when they met. At a party in 1910, Rechtin's revulsion at a reception line in which the hostess kissed all attendees inspired her mission to stop such promiscuous germ sharing. She began a movement, and an organisation called the World Health Organisation (really) to push for less kissing, even in the privacy of one's home. Rechtin's campaign was ridiculed in the press and ultimately failed to sway public opinion at large. But Rechtin's concerns weren't entirely unfounded. At a time of widespread public health crises and evolving ideas about how illnesses spread, kissing was an easily avoidable vector of disease. At the time tuberculosis was rampant and typhoid, cholera and syphilis outbreaks were still common.
A reader writes: "When I was doing my nursing training I sometimes went to my brother's farm near Auckland. In those days I drove a 1952 Hillman Humber. I was under 5 feet in height and when I passed the first farmhouse on his road, if anyone had seen me, they would ring through on the party line to tell my brother the driverless car was coming."
Shooting sign explained
Emile Bax from Epsom writes: "The 'Danger: Shooting in progress' at the bottom of One Tree Hill may well belong to the Auckland Archery Club - located in Cornwall Park - who I understand put out this warning when their outdoor shooting range is in use. Maybe someone took it and put it up elsewhere in the park as a prank?"
