KEY POINTS:
A readerwas in Kalmia St, Ellerslie, waiting for the rail bus when he saw this sign - he'd never heard of the "hrbcydfbn consulate NZ" and wondered if any SideSwipe readers can explain.
* * *
Buzzwords of 2008:
Greyjing: A nickname for Beijing, whose skies are some of the most polluted in the world.
Gas sipper: The opposite of gas-guzzler. Though more than 30 years old, the term took on new significance as gasoline prices rose to record highs.
Nuke the fridge: To ruin a movie franchise; usually attributed to the arrogance of a successful producer or director. Based on a scene in the latest Indiana Jones movie, in which the hero survives a nuclear blast by hiding in a refrigerator.
Fish pedicure: A cosmetic procedure in which fish eat the dead skin off the feet.
TBTF: Meaning "too big to fail," used to describe very large financial institutions that many believe should be protected from financial collapse.
Recessionista: Originally, someone who favoured a recession as ultimately good for the economy. Now, a person who stays fashionable during an economic downturn without spending a lot of money.
Quake Lake: A new lake formed by May's major earthquake in China.
Plutoid: A new term designated by the International Astronomical Union to refer to Pluto and space objects like it, which are something less than planets.
Fail: Largely used online, this is a verb turned into a mass noun, as in "A bucket of fail". Common forms include epic fail, meaning a huge overall tendency towards failure or a great example of failure, and FAIL! as an interjection or derogation.
(Source: New York Times, Week in Review)
* * *
The Telegraph reports: "A goldfish survived for 13 hours on the floor after apparently leaping from its bowl, according to its owner. Barbara Woodford woke to discover Ginger missing from its bowl; when she returned home in the evening she spotted her pet on the floor. 'I picked him up with a spatula and his mouth started moving. I put him back into the water and off he went. He was swimming fabulously. I couldn't believe it - it was a real Christmas miracle,' said Mrs Woodward, 61, of Gloucester."
* * *
While in Newmarket with kids in the car, Blair Johnson managed to drop his keys into a drain on Nuffield St just before Boxing Day sales shoppers stopped for lunch. "The only solution was to climb into the drain to retrieve the keys," he writes: "With only my head protruding - I am 6ft 6in [1.98m] - and a series of bemused cafe-goers looking on, I managed to find my keys and scrambled out of the drain covered in stinking stormwater up to my neck. I stood in sight of several cafes soaking wet and stinking while customers sipped lattes. A big thank you to the man from GAS Jeans who came across the road and handed me a clean
T-shirt which meant I could feel slightly human."
