An empty billboard is an ugly thing in a recession and a tempting canvas for taggers, but a group of street artists from Cut Collective have come up with a great idea to brighten up unbooked billboard space. Together with billboard company OGGI, the Cut Collective will add its street art on empty billboard spaces around Auckland. The first artwork, measuring a massive 6m x 3m, will be auctioned on Trade Me, with the proceeds going to Kenzies Gift, a charity supporting families of children with cancer. Come on, corporate Auckland with large dull foyers, dig deep!
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Never help friends move house: A reader received this from a friend who made the mistake of helping another friend shift flats. "We eventually got the two-seater couch into my van and across to Mt Eden. The flat was at the bottom of a steep hill with gates and doorways designed only to allow anorexic people in sideways. The place was reminiscent of a North Vietnamese army underground bunker complex. She wanted the two-seater in the bedroom 'which has patio doors'. She neglected to say the patio doors were down a narrow alleyway which seemed to have been designed as an access for snakes. I suggested airlifting the couch into the backyard by helicopter, but my sarcasm was lost on her. She said helicopters frightened her neighbours. The couches are both back in the garage, although the two-seater is much more widely travelled now."
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Forget Tamiflu, Anah Dunsheath has another solution to swine flu. "Brazil nuts!" she says. "Just three or four a day gives us the selenium we need to protect against the flu virus. Apparently the huge brazil nut trees have very deep roots and gather the minerals we all lack in our NZ diet."
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The picture of a McDonald's Filet-o-Fish with half a slice of cheese has been made according to "a global specification", says the fast food PR machine. A reader confirms: "... the slice of cheese has always been a half-square or a triangle! But really, who puts fish and cheese together anyway."
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Dog owners respond to anti-terrier sentiment in yesterday's column: "All dog owners are familiar with the non dog owners who have bought into the 'Oh my God it's a killer dog!' hysteria. But nowadays you even find other dog owners showing the same psychosis. Even here on Waiheke, we have dog owners who parade down the beach in their own little bubble of fear and loathing. Any approach by another dog, no matter how friendly, is greeted with hysterical fear and rage. The sad result of course is that their own dogs pick up on the idea that all other dogs are considered bad and dangerous and behave accordingly. The labrador puppy walker your correspondent describes is just such a person and will end up with a dysfunctional dog as a result."
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View today's Herald cartoon
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Today's Webpick: Taking the mickey out of shampoo and laundry ads which target women. Watch it here. These are the very best online videos from Ana's online magazine Spare Room.
