KEY POINTS:
Trish Ferguson of Devonport writes: "Mum and Dad were watching TV when Mum said, "I'm tired, and it's getting late. I think I'll go to bed". She then went to the kitchen to make sandwiches for the next day's lunches, rinsed out the coffee cups, took meat out of the freezer for dinner the following evening, checked the cereal box levels, filled the sugar container, put spoons and bowls on the table and started the coffee pot for brewing the next morning. She then put some wet clothes in the dryer, put a load of clothes into the washer, ironed a shirt and secured a loose button. She turned the computer off, put the phone back on the charger and put the telephone book into the drawer. She watered the plants, emptied a wastebasket and hung up a towel to dry. She yawned and stretched and headed for the bedroom. She stopped by the desk and wrote a note to the teacher, counted out some cash for the field trip and pulled a text book out from its hiding place under the chair. She signed a birthday card for a friend, addressed and stamped the envelope and wrote a quick list for the supermarket. She put both near her handbag. She then washed her face with 3 in 1 cleanser, put on her night cream, brushed and flossed her teeth and filed her nails. Dad called out, 'I thought you were going to bed'. She replied that she was on her way. She put some water into the dog dish and put the cat outside, she then made sure the doors were locked and the patio light was on. She looked in on each of the kids and turned out their bedside lamps and TVs, hung up a shirt, threw some dirty socks into the laundry basket and had a brief conversation with the teenager still up doing homework. In her own room, she set the alarm, laid out clothing for the next day, straightened up the shoe rack. She added three things to her six-most-important-things-to-do list. She said her prayers, and visualised the accomplishment of her goals. About that time, Dad turned off the TV and announced to no one in particular: 'I'm going to bed.' And he did ... without another thought."
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A convicted murderer put to death in Tennessee this week got his last-meal wish after he died. Philip Workman had turned down the usual final meal of his choice traditionally offered the condemned, asking instead that a vegetarian pizza be given to a homeless person. Prison officials refused to send out a pizza and Workman died by lethal injection. But news accounts of his request touched a nerve with the public. Nashville's Union Rescue Mission received 170 pizzas. Media reports said listeners to a radio station in Minnesota also ordered pizzas to be sent to another organisation for troubled youngsters. An official at the mission said, "The pizzas were enjoyed greatly by our clientele".
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Paula Green was dismayed to hear that the antiquated term "head of the household" is still being used by research company ACNielsen. "When I queried what 'head of the household' meant with someone with a clipboard at Brighton Beach in England several years ago, I was told that it was 'the adult person in the house who did the fewest household chores'. I admit to happily claiming the title on that basis."
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