A toasty place for a catnap.
Woman takes kids along on petrol scam
"Pulling into the Tokoroa BP station one evening about two weeks ago, I was approached by a a young smiling woman on her cellphone," writes a reader. "She is so embarrassed she says, but she has left her bankcard with her husband in
Taumarunui and has no way to fill her car with petrol to get to Auckland. There are three young smiling children in the back seat with faces painted. Just been at a cousin's birthday party. She'll pay me back by internet banking within the hour. Of course, I say. I follow her out of the petrol station and her car disappears at a fast speed up a local road. Not on the road to Auckland at all. And the petrol attendants tell me the family were all eating takeaways in the car before I arrived. Clever twist on asking for money, and extra points for acting ability."
Did dream reveal fate awaiting Titanic?
Premonition dream: "In March, J. Cannon Middleton booked a passage on the ill-fated ship, the Titanic, which was announced to sail on April 10. About the end of March he dreamed that he saw her floating keel upward, her passengers and crew swimming round her. Next night, the same dream again. Though feeling very uneasy, he told no one and took no action. But on April 4 he received a cable suggesting, for business reasons, that he postpone his journey. He cancelled his ticket, and then [told] his wife and three friends about the dream. He also produces as evidence his cancelled ticket and the cable delaying his journey." Here the facts seem to be beyond dispute; but it is, of course, impossible to rule out the theory of coincidence. It should be noted, however, that Mr Middleton had crossed the Atlantic a dozen times, and had never before had any such premonition or felt any nervousness. The coincidence that, just on this occasion, he should twice have a warning dream is certainly very strange.
— William Archer, Can We Foretell the Future?, McClure's Magazine, December 1915.
