KEY POINTS:
The Wesley Acres Methodist retirement home in Alabama looks just like any other building from the ground - but fly over it in a plane and its giant swastika outline is unmistakable. The single-storey building was designed in the 1970s and completed in 1980 before undergoing alterations in 2001 because of its similarities to the Nazi symbol. But the addition of two wings seemed to accentuate its offensive shape rather than hide it for the 117 pensioners living there. "The difficulty is there are a limited number of options for fixing a building that has been there for some time," said Mike Giles, of the Methodist Homes Corporation of Alabama and Northwest Florida. (source: Skynews.com)
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Richie McCaw fronted the media yesterday to introduce Westpac's new financial literacy campaign. The All Black captain confessed he'd always been "something of a saver" and fondly remembered the satisfaction of saving up for his first car. Fair enough, until Westpac's head of corporate responsibility, Suzie Marsden, added that the bank was sure young people would listen to Richie about the need to save instead of spending whatever they earned. Would this be the same Westpac that plasters our city with red billboards, urging us to splash out on a small wedding (in Paris) and lots of other things we can't afford unless we take out a loan?
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More on strangely named foreign bread. Les Elmer's story about Bimbo bread from Spain reminded Dale of a similar story. "Years ago when living in Amsterdam I used to be captivated by the TV advertising for Bums Bread. Their unbeatable slogan, which flashed up on screen, was "Bums! Bums! Bums! Hoera!" (Hooray). Discussions about it are online if you Google "Bums brood".
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On the subject of outlandish names for children, Paul Hodgson confesses that as an avid Otago rugby supporter he called his first son Josh after a certain well-known open-side flanker. "When looking at names for our second child, I came up with the brilliant idea that if it was a girl, we could call her Carys Brooke (after the home ground of Otago rugby). We ended up having a boy, so my wife never had the opportunity to completely veto my suggestion ... We called him Liam (no Otago or rugby connection at all), for which I am sure he'll be forever grateful."
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Spotted in downtown Auckland around Sunday lunchtime: joggers returning from the Round the Bays fun run with giveaway plastic bags branded with the name Sunday Star-Times. No wonder the paper's writers are having such a hard time doing without plastic bags as part of their campaign against this insidious environmental menace.
