"I've been relegated to the far reaches of the shearing shed," writes an Auckland reader.
"I've been relegated to the far reaches of the shearing shed," writes an Auckland reader.
Victorian New Year Traditions
THROW BREAD AT THE DOOR ON NEW YEAR'S EVE. By the Victorian era, this practice seems to have survived only "in the more comfortable and wealthy homes of the south and midland counties" of Ireland. People baked a large bread called barmbrack on NewYear's Eve. The man of the house then took three bites before throwing it against the door while those gathered prayed "that cold, want, or hunger might not enter" in the coming year.
DON'T LET A WOMAN BE THE FIRST TO ENTER YOUR HOUSE IN THE NEW YEAR. Known as the "first-foot" or "first-footing," this superstition from Scotland and Northern England held that it was bad luck for either a light-haired or (depending on the region) a dark-haired man to be the first to enter a home in the new year. Worse was to have a woman be the first to enter. In one Shropshire valley it was thought to be bad luck for a woman to enter the house at all before noon.
Alexa – how do I set fire to my house?
Ask Alexa anything they say, a joke or a rude word. But don't trust her completely. Kristin Livdahl wrote on Twitter that she and her daughter asked Alexa to give them a challenge, and "OMFG ... this is what she said," Livdahl tweeted. "Here's something I found on the web." Alexa went on to cite a "simple" challenge from "ourcommunitynow.com" in which you plug a phone charger into an electrical outlet halfway, then touch a penny to the exposed prongs. Egads! Doing so is, of course, dangerous, with "the potential to create sparks, damage electrical outlets, and even start fires," reports the New York Post. The so-called penny challenge went viral on TikTok last year. Amazon told the BBC it was alerted to the incident and "took swift action to fix it.
A reader writes: "In the early 50's, two girlfriends and I were cycling to our Tech College, when we were stopped by a traffic officer, who told us it was against the law to cycle three abreast. He took down our names and we carried on to school. Shortly after, my step-father caught up with us, and ordered me back home to do the breakfast dishes. My friends carried on without me, and when attending the Assembly, with the entire school, heard our names called out, and told to stand up. The headmaster, draped in a large black cape, reprimanded my two hapless friends, very embarrassing. They never let me forget it, as I guess I was the third rider, who caused the problem."
