How to keep the kids busy over the hols
Warehouse giant Costco likes to do everything big, from super-sized teddy bears to sacks of pet food you can barely carry. Their latest exclusive offering: A jigsaw puzzle with 60,000 pieces that will take up an entire room when it’s finished. The sprawling What a Wonderful World puzzle is actually 60 interconnected 1000-piece puzzles to make assembly (somewhat) feasible. Each features a painting from the Dowdle Art Studio of a fascinating landmark from different parts of the world, like The Great Wall of China and The Eiffel Tower. When finished, the puzzle measures 2.4 metres tall and 8.8 metres wide. And the price is big too at US$599, which is more than a grand in Kiwi dollars.
Down with the lingo
Closing early
Aarti Prasad has noticed something odd: “We used to have three Countdowns open till midnight. Countdowns in Greenlane, New Lynn and Quay St. Recently, all three now shut at 10pm. The bigger signage on the buildings still says ‘closes at midnight’ however each of them now places a small A4 note on the door to say ‘shut at 10pm’. What’s going on? This means there are absolutely no supermarkets open past 10pm in Auckland anymore as New World and Pak’nSave also shut at 10pm. We need at least one open until midnight!”
Old news
In May 1966 the charges of indecent exposure, brought against 21-year-old Mary Lou Hood for mowing her lawn while wearing a bikini, were all dropped. The judge determined there was insufficient evidence of lewdness or indecent exposure to support the charges. The case was said to be the hottest issue in the college town of Edmond, Oklahoma, “since canned beer”. The judge delivered his decision to a standing-room-only crowd. The case also received widespread national media coverage even though, as Hood’s lawyer noted, the case didn’t actually establish a legal precedent for a right to wear a bikini while mowing the lawn.