Sideswipe: September 29: Very metal throne

A skull toilet or skoilet is a real thing, for people who like the idea of a toilet in the shape of a human skull. SKULLPOT is a Swiss brand focused on "modern rimless toilets in the shape of skulls" and markets itself as luxury design. They cost NZ$850 for white, $980 for black, and $1250 for gold.

Tales of bad luck

1. Won a $1,000,000 lottery, hit all 5 numbers and the powerball ... using a ticket from the week before.
2. Woke up from a nap one day and went to my son's school to pick him up. I heard a noise coming from my car, immediately thinking it was a flat tyre again. Get in the pick-up line, got out the car, bent over to look, just to realise I had no pants on.
3. I got caught breaking my mother's "No talking on the phone and driving" rule when she passed me on the road and I was on my phone. She was the one I was talking to.
4. One time cheese from a pizza roll dripped on to my chin and gave me a second-degree burn.
(Via @jimmyfallon)

High speed train

The first public, commercial run of France's intercity high-speed rail service, TGV, traversing the around 370km between Paris and Lyon in just under three hours began on this day in 1981 with 770 passengers. To combat the conception that the train was meant to be a premium for business travellers, initially the tickets were offered at the same price as parallel conventional lines, which would have taken the better part of a day to make the crossing, and hailed with the promotional slogan that "Progress means nothing unless it is shared by all."

Come back at 6.05pm

Teachers were dry tyrants with good aim

1. Way back in the early 1970s in Lower Hutt, our high school principal, Brother Cyprian, visited the classroom. "O'Sullivan, you need a haircut!" he said. "I visited the barber last week, Brother." "So, I assume it was just a social call."
2. Caroline McConnel writes: "My best friend at the time Emma Thompson (yes, the famous one) was very reassuring when I achieved 15 per cent in a social and economic history exam during our time at Camden School for Girls by saying "When you get a job in the Cornflakes factory, they won't ask you who Anselm was". My mother was not impressed. And events that happened in 1970 that teachers couldn't do now: My Latin teacher's remark on school report, out of many in 1970: "Caroline must learn not to succumb to silly behaviour". And our maths teacher taking perfect aim with pieces of chalk to those in the back row who weren't paying enough attention."
3. Keith remembers his teacher's understated but brutal comment from Takapuna Grammar 1964, 3rd form French: "10% - "Indicative of the effort expended".