Blended beverage's celebrity back story
Smooth sax icon Kenny G practically invented Starbucks' Frappuccino, apparently. An uncle introduced Kenny to founder Howard Schultz and he invested in the chain. "At the beginning, Starbucks didn't have anything but coffee," he tells Bloomberg. "And there was another company, Coffee Bean, that had something called 'blended' that was a sweet drink, and people were lined up around the block. And I would always call Howard and say, 'Howard, there's this thing that they do there that's like a milkshake or whatever'. And so I think that part of the reason that they did Frappuccino was people like me giving them that kind of feedback."
Letting a driver off
1. "Many years ago, just before Christmas, I stopped a van that had gone through a stop sign. When I got up to the driver's door, I could see the driver was dressed in a Santa Claus costume. I smiled, and said, 'Sir, I stopped you for disobeying that stop sign back there'. He said, 'Ho-ho-ho?' I had to laugh. I told him to stop twice at the next one and sent him on his way." (Rick Bruno)
2. "I pulled a guy over for speeding. I was taking my time running his info. By the time I approached the window his dog was in the driver's seat. I looked at him and he said, 'Officer, I told him to slow down but he wouldn't listen'. I laughed so hard that I about peed myself. Needless to say I let him go." (Patrick Woten) (Via quora.com)
Mystery of the missing plums
A reader writes: "Has anyone yet solved the mystery of the missing plums? Overnight a tree will be stripped of fruit, no evidence of any animal droppings, no seeds, and no humans disturbed by vigilant dogs (and even high, unreachable fruit gone). I have heard of this happening for years, from Northland to Wellington, to random trees."
This piece of art has just been installed outside our apartment building in New Lynn," writes a reader. "We can only see one thing. Anyone else got an idea of what this is supposed to be?"
"If they're just to keep speeds down, why hide under a tree on private property?" asks a reader.
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