KEY POINTS:
Thebookseller.com is running its annual poll to determine which of six splendidly-titled books should be named the oddest title of 2007.
Here's the shortlist that caught the eye of publishers, booksellers and librarians across the world:
1. Tattooed Mountain Women and Spoon Boxes of Daghestan.
2. How Green
Were the Nazis?
3. D. Di Mascio's Delicious Ice Cream. D. Di Mascio of Coventry: An Ice Cream Company of Repute, with an Interesting and Varied Fleet of Ice Cream Vans.
4. The Stray Shopping Carts of Eastern North America: A Guide to Field Identification.
5. Proceedings of the Eighteenth International Seaweed Symposium.
6. Better Never To Have Been: The Harm of Coming Into Existence.
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The rusty old cast-iron pole, complete with elaborate finial, at the intersection of Customs St East and Fort St, has Auckland City heritage experts flummoxed. Local resident Terry Britton reckons it's one of Auckland last remaining gas street lamps and is over 100 years old. "It's rusty, pitted and neglected exterior does nothing to enhance the Britomart area," he says and thinks its restoration sits well with the council's policy of enhancing the street furniture. Council heritage staff say there are no plans to remove it but are intrigued. Heritage technician Sarah Pocklington says gas lamps were not normally that high and "it wouldn't have illuminated a lot from way up there". She wonders whether it might have once been a sewer vent and would be grateful for reader input. Anyone remember that far back?
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A reader writes: "It's inorganic rubbish collection time in our area again, and as usual the roads look like somewhere from a Third World country. But what stupidity [was] shown by neighbours who added a pile of unused prescription medicines to the stack ... Are they unaware of the local school children who have a rummage through as they walk home? The consequences of this lack of foresight could have been deadly. Don't worry, my daughter did the right thing and disposed of them correctly."
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A cricket fan in India is so desperate to see his team compete in the World Cup that he is willing to sell a kidney to finance the trip. Sarun Sharma, 23, hopes to raise about $11,000 for his organ. The catch is that he wants a cash advance before giving up the organ when he returns from the contest in the West Indies. He says: "I am really serious. I am prepared to give one of my kidneys in lieu of money, as I want to go to the West Indies to see India play."
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A German journalist has been fined after he filmed three artists stealing water from Pope Benedict's garden hose in Bavaria to sell on internet auction site eBay. The three men broke into the garden of the Pope's house in August armed with 20 old lemonade bottles and were filmed by freelance journalist Hubertus Wiendl, who was caught by the caretaker. Wiendl denied any knowledge of the plan to enter the garden. The artists have not been tracked down. (Source: Reuters)