KEY POINTS:
Same title, very different book: Foreskin's Lament, an iconic play by New Zealander Greg McGee which shows a dark side to rugby culture, was published in 1981. Now a United States author, Shalom Auslander, has named his memoir Foreskin's Lament. It looks at his upbringing in an oppressive
Orthodox Jewish community. Didn't anyone Google the title beforehand?
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A reader has a literal Sideswipe: "My pregnant partner was sideswiped in her car yesterday in Mt Albert by some boy racer," says a dad-to-be. "He promptly drove off to evade having to pay insurance. Funny thing was he left his number plate embedded in the car. Duh?"
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Teeth Tech: Oral-B's Triumph SmartGuide toothbrush is available only in Britain and costs $368. It uses navigation technology to transmit the exact location of the toothbrush to a base unit so the user can see which areas in his mouth the brush might have missed. The wireless LCD mouth display can be mounted on a mirror or held in the free hand. (Source: Daily Telegraph)
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Jo Patel is exasperated with Auckland tradesmen: "They advertise their services and you call them, make appointments, arrange time off work, reschedule your weekend and then they don't turn up, and don't even have the courtesy to call you to tell you that they cannot make it. I've had this happen to me over the last four weeks with a drainlayer, plumber, a builder and two different painters and decorators."
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Ben McCarthy came across an online auction and didn't like the attitude of the vendor. The ad read: "Lots of cut, dry pine firewood. Some treated wood, so best in a closed fireplace. Load up a trailer or truck, shed is full too. Winner must take ALL wood please! Pick up from Green Bay. Burn it in a closed chimney and send the poisons from the treated wood up the chimney so the neighbours and their kids get all the benefit of the toxic chemicals."
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Celebrities have been known to go to extreme lengths to avoid the media spotlight, but now they can go one step further thanks to the offer of a rather different home. The "house" comes with 14 levels of living space, including a deluxe swimming pool and garage with space for a helicopter, and the added bonus that the building is buried underground and built to withstand a nuclear attack. Appropriately named World's End, the site is a declassified, intercontinental ballistic missile launch facility buried 70m into the Kansas countryside. The 9144m space cost the US Government millions of dollars to build. The facility, which was decommissioned after the end of the Cold War and has never been used, is being billed as the "ultimate in safe and secure living". Leading Hollywood figures and others wealthy enough to afford the price tag of US$10 million ($13.31 million) plus are said to be interested in snapping it up.
Today's Video Webpick: I know you're all hungry for intelligent, thought provoking videos, so here's something to curb your appetites... A compilation of babies throwing up. Watch it here. Scroll down. These are the very best online videos from Ana's online magazine Spare Room.