Sideswipe: September 27: The Gull effect

Sideswipe - ana.samways@nzherald.co.nz·NZ Herald·

26 Sep, 2018 05:00 PM2 mins to read

Could this be as a result of the Gull effect? Photo / Supplied

Opinion by Ana SamwaysLearn more

Fuel for thought

"My journey from Greenlane Auckland to Dargaville on Tuesday 25th September revealed huge discrepancy in petrol prices across the 10 petrol stations I photographed," writes Rex Nathan. "Caltex Dargaville at $2.34 is only four cents cheaper than BP Greenlane which is $2.38. How can that be when Auckland residents are meant to be paying 11.5 cents more than the rest of the country? Gull Wellsford is the cheapest of all at $2.13. Interesting that Mobil and Caltex Wellsford are cheaper than other towns. Could it be as a result of the Gull effect?"

Ew — facepalm emoji

In breaking news, lexical purists may be disgusted to learn that "ew" is now a legit word having made it into the Scrabble dictionary. Now 300 new words have been included in the official Scrabble dictionary, including "Qapik", which is a unit of currency in Azerbaijan.

This will excite players because it means you can use a q (a 10-point letter) without having a u! Other big point scorers include: aquafaba, beatdown, yowza, sheeple, wayback, bokeh, botnet, emoji, facepalm, frowny, hivemind, puggle, nubber and zomboid — resembling zombies, which was used so brilliantly by Kevin Eldon in the Observer, who wrote: "I suspect a lot of you may be in that awful place right now because suddenly, it's 22 December again and, damn Santa's beard, your Christmas present shopping is not even begun. You've put it off and put it off and now there's nothing for it but to head out sometime in the next 48 hours to push through the zomboid hordes in pursuit of some truly mundane, tedious, mass-produced stuff."

Christmas is coming!

"Made from luxurious red plush and finished with a white trim, they look just like a Santa hat!" declare the Innovations catalogue out in ... yes, September. Photo / Supplied

That would be the long drop

India-based airline GoAir told AFP that a passenger tried to open the rear door of an aircraft, apparently confusing it for a toilet. Police say there was "pandemonium" when fellow passengers saw the man, a banker in his twenties, trying to open the door while the plane was mid-air.