KEY POINTS:
Irony and coincidence.
* * *
Saved by a sausage: A woman accused of having a knife in public has walked free. Jane Bellas, from Cumbria, England, was arrested in her car near her home after officers spotted her with a kitchen knife. Bellas told police she needed
the knife for her job on a fast-food stall in a local market square. But the local council was unable to confirm this and she was charged. Fortunately, council records showed food inspectors had earlier seen Bellas "tinkering with a generator while handling a sausage", Mr Evans said. This was enough to prove the defendant's story. (Source: The Guardian)
* * *
Antony Beagley of Michel's Patisserie in Newmarket received a flyer outlining the new collection day for the new 240-litre recycling bins, starting in July. "Our new collection day will be Thursday (currently Friday). According to the flyer, we just need to ensure we place the recycling bin out for collection by 7am on Monday. Not sure the retail customers in the area would appreciate the bins out on the street for 3-4 days before collection!"
* * *
A reader writes on her experience with mistaken identity: "Making a late-night burger run to McDonald's, my boyfriend and I were discussing what to order when I realised I'd left my handbag in the car. When I returned, my boyfriend was ordering, and in our usual affectionate fashion I walked up behind him, wrapped my arms around his middle, rested my chin on his shoulder and chimed in with my order. It took a few moments, and the bemused face of the person serving, to realise that I was snuggling into a perfect stranger wearing the same sweater as my boyfriend."
* * *
Margaret Packard of Tairua admits to engaging her mouth before putting her brain in gear. "In Stratford Maternity Hospital some 46 years ago, friends would gather in one room at visiting times, in our frilly housecoats, and meet each other's husbands. A few weeks after leaving, I was proudly wheeling my pram down town when I passed one of those husbands and said, 'Hullo'. When he looked at me blankly, I blurted out, 'Don't you recognise me with my clothes on?' He and I both blushed but his two mates roared with laughter."
* * *
To Michael Wood, who enthuses that the Shell/Ferrari ad is "a panorama of ... famous racers driving through spectacular scenery promoting ... one of history's finest carmakers", the reader from Westmere replies that the indisputable beauty and technical quality of the filmmaking was not at issue. "The question is whether, when the world is threatened by climate change, caused in large part by the burning of non-renewable fossil fuels, which have doubled in price in the last few years, imposing great economic pressure on individuals, families and societies, it is acceptable for a multi-national corporation that makes its profits exclusively from the sale of those fuels to be promoting, by images of racing drivers and the use of the buzzword 'power', more extravagant use of those fuels. Excessive consumption and an obsession with power have got us into this fix. Those same behaviours will certainly not get us out of it."
Today's Webpick: Security camera catches some of the best office rage ever caught on tape. Watch it here.
These are the very best online videos from Ana's online magazine Spare Room.
