That could be a little uncomfortable. Snapped by Mike Westgate in Fiji.
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A retired police chief was held up at gunpoint by "probably the dumbest criminal in Pennsylvania" at a police officers' convention attended by 300 narcotics officers. John Comparetto, from New York, said a man pointed a gun in his face and demanded money in the men's loos at the convention. Comparetto handed over his money and mobile phone. But when the man fled, he chased after him and found him crouching in the back of a taxi outside. Mr Comparetto stopped the taxi at gunpoint with his fellow officers, who then arrested a 19-year-old. When a reporter asked the suspect for a comment as he was led out of the court, he said, "I'm smooth". (Source: telegraph.co.uk)
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Looking over the darkened communities west of Titirangi during the Earth Hour lights-off initiative on Saturday, a noticeable exception on Scenic Drive caught the eye of a reader, who says the ARC visitors' centre at Arataki was lit up like a Christmas tree at 9.10pm, until they remembered to flick the switch for the last 20 minutes.
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Edna Bruce of Pukekohe writes: "During the late 1950s a friend who worked in the bookings office at the Auckland Railway Station told us that one day booking staff were highly amused to discover that a Mr Pickle and a Miss Onion were travelling to Wellington on the same train. They decided to seat them together. I wonder if the pair ever introduced themselves."
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One of Mt Albert Grammar's most distinguished old boys will be inducted into its hall of distinction on Friday, but he will be without his family, so MAGS has put the call out to his old schoolmates to be there in support. Sir Graeme Davies, who was at MAGS from 1950-54, is vice-chancellor of the University of London, and is coming back to this part of the world to speak at a conference in Sydney. The induction ceremony will take place in the school's F.W. Gamble Memorial Hall at 2.10pm, and Sir Graeme will leave for the UK just hours later, hopefully having seen a few friendly (if more wrinkled!) faces from his years at Mt Albert.
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The reader who thought the phone books belonged to Telecom obviously doesn't read the business pages. The Yellow Pages business is (or was) extremely profitable, so much so that Telecom sold it off nearly two years ago for the grand sum of $2.2 billion. Only problem was, the Hong Kong private equity fund and Canadian teachers' pension fund that bought it borrowed a lot of money to do so, and I think you can guess the rest. It reported a $61 million loss in its first year of private ownership. So yes, the Scouts and printers are still benefiting.
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See today's Herald cartoon
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Today's Video Webpick: The much anticipated film trailer for classic children's book, Where the Wild Things Are click here. Plus, John Key’s “CEO style” of running a government click here.
These are the very best online videos from Ana's online magazine Spare Room.
