Waterbed nostalgia
Diane writes: "In 1972, when we were married, we purchased a bedroom suite from a retail store in Willis St, Wellington which included a king-size waterbed. It was a "Dream Merchant" and I think the supplier was Christchurch based. It was marketed as "not suitable for children or over-enthusiastic adults" and we were told that it was the 17th sold in NZ (I think we were even given a certificate to that effect). We were even warned that we needed to check that our bedroom floor was strong enough. We didn't have a heater for it, I can't remember whether that was because they were not available in 1972 or because we couldn't afford one. In the winter we used an electric blanket - not recommended. We've been married 50 years in October and still have the furniture but long since replaced the water bed with a conventional mattress."
Cut above the rest
"Am I the peasant?" John Riley of Edgecumbe ponders. "My sister raised the subject during idle chat recently. Why do diagonally cut sandwiches appear to offer better value than straight cut? Without reference to the long-remembered hypotenuse and the sins of cosines it is difficult to credit anything other than optical illusion. Probably explains why food retailers use the diagonal presentation most frequently, and my dear wife always gives me a rap when I cut my sammies straight."
