Sideswipe

This back car window sign was found in the 1,2,3 Dollar Shop at Hunter's Plaza, Papatoetoe by a bemused Clare Scott.

Did the world learn nothing from inventing the "Metrosexual?" According to a lengthy analysis in New York Magazine, "Grups" is a term for adults who, in subconscious desperation, dress and act way younger than they are. It's "grownups" with the "own" removed. The long-winded article picked it up from, where else, science fiction TV: "The term taken from an episode of Star Trek (keep reading) in which Captain Kirk et al land on a planet ruled by children with no adults in sight. It turns out that all the grown-ups have died from a virus that greatly slows the aging process and kills anybody who grows up." Marketers will already be targeting you.

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The largest number of pills popped by one person is 40,000 in nine years, according to doctors from London University. The 37-year-old known only as Mr A dropped 25 MDMA tabs (Ecstasy) a day at peak. He stopped taking the drug seven years ago, but still suffers from severe memory problems, paranoia, hallucinations and depression, and a painful muscle rigidity around his neck and jaw, which often stops him from opening his mouth. (Source: Guardian Unlimited)

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From one God-awful job to another: Prostitutes in Germany are being retrained as telemarketers, according to Reuters. "Competition in prostitution is fierce and the days when one could make a decent living out of it are long gone, especially once you hit the 30s," says project co-ordinator Gisela Zohren. "After years of prostitution, they know how to listen, look after people and are savvy in selling over the phone."

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All respectable bases covered: There has been much praise for Anand Satyanand's appointment as our next Governor-General, says Vaibhav Gangan, editor of the Global Indian, a magazine for Indians in Australasia. Fijians are happy because he is of Fijian origin, he says, and Indians make a claim on his Indian heritage. National's Chinese MP Pansy Wong is proud that he is an Asian. Minister for Ethnic Affairs Chris Carter shows him off as a member of the "ethnic" community. And if that was not enough, a caller to Newstalk ZB yesterday gushed: "He makes us all proud as Catholics. He's the first Catholic to be appointed the head of state not only in New Zealand, but in the entire world." (He meant the Commonwealth).