An Oregon man presented a clay jug to Antiques Roadshow earlier this year. Expert appraisers valued it at US$50,000 ($74,000). They dated it to the late 19th century and said it came from the "Middle Atlantic states headed southward". Imagine the man's disappointment when thejug turned out to be the creation of Betsy Soule, who sculpted it in her high school ceramics class in the 1970s.
Lunch box linguistics
"Is it just me, or is the bane of every working parent's morning filling the children's lunch boxes?" writes Carol from Glen Eden. "Such is my dread, I now refer to them as 'bloody lunch boxes', and on my bad days 'eff-ing lunch boxes'. Not only does it have to be rubbish-free, it has to be whole foods and healthy and pleasing to the fuss pots who'll be eating their contents. One has gone off ham, the other complains of the sammy-sameness and often they come back hardly touched. Grr, what a waste! I've taken to making sushi the night before, but who can really keep that up day in, day out? This morning I was particularly aggrieved at the prospect of filling the four lunch boxes for those who still can't manage to get them out of their bags from the day before. The older kids grudgingly get theirs for refilling, but the 5-year-old is having trouble locating his. In a few minutes he turns up with it and says, as he plonks it on the bench: 'Here's my eff-ing lunch box, mum.' I was duly mortified."
"The abandoned car story gave me a bitter chuckle," writes Amy. "A few years back I was flatting in a reasonably posh street in Kohimarama. I bought a new car and it took me a fortnight or so to get round to listing the old (slightly dinged-up, but still respectable) one for sale. It was parked on the street opposite our driveway. Before that fortnight was up I received a letter advising me that my car had been reported as abandoned! Clearly the sight of a car more than 5 years old on the pristine streets of Kohimarama had caused fear and alarm to the Hyacinth Buckets in the vicinity, and at least one of them had enough clout with council to get me jolly well warned."
Someone's had a very late night.
Car complications
Mark Hannan from Auckland Transport says the sorry-looking vehicle on the side of the road in Parakai, featured in Sideswipe this week, has a Vin number and a current rego and warrant and therefore the onus was on the owner, who's been contacted, to remove it. If Auckland Transport remove the vehicle immediately they will incur the costs to do so and to store the car until they can legally declare it abandoned, and they might get in the way of a police or insurance investigation, he explains.
Prince as seen in the video for 'Raspberry Beret' (1985)
Picture this: Realistic looking Prince doll, with customised clothes...See more here.
