KEY POINTS:
The ultimate drunken fling: This year's Oktoberfest recorded its first casualty when an American visitor to the beer celebration scored a direct hit with a carrot, striking a Chilean woman in the eye, Munich police say. The 29-year-old victim needed treatment for a bruise under the eye. Her assailant was detained but later released on bail. Organisers had encouraged visitors to bring food, in an attempt to curb the drunkenness that has characterised the event in recent years. (Source: DPA)
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A reader trying to book a trip across the Ditch has discovered that Air New Zealand's computer programmers have not quite got to grips with the extended daylight saving this year. He writes: "Have you noticed Air New Zealand's special offer for the week of September 30 to October 6? During that week their online booking system says that the flight time from Auckland to Sydney is only 2h 30m, an hour less than the usual 3h 30m that it takes every other week of the year. In compensation, rather than three hours to get back to Auckland, it takes four hours during that week. I hope that their fuel-load calculations are done with a different program."
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Hungary is hosting the world Rubik's Cube championship, where the most nimble participants will be vying to beat the world record time for solving the puzzle - 9.86 seconds - which is barely a tenth of a second slower than the world men's 100m sprint record. Other challenges involve completing the Cube blindfolded or using only one hand.
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The things you see when you're driving. "As I merged on to the motorway at Esmonde Rd on Monday morning, I avoided the black BMW with the woman driver busily applying her lipstick," writes Trevor Budd. "The car swerved into the adjacent lane and sped through the traffic. My next view of her was of the car speeding up the harbour bridge with the lipstick now exchanged for a bottle of mascara. I know some women consider themselves great multi-taskers so what would she have done if her phone had rung? ... I know; she had a spare hand so she would have answered it."
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E. F. Grant read the piece about the girl tendering a $10 note for a bus fare and being refused a ride, and it reminded him of an incident from many years ago. "My brother was a bus driver and one morning a man got on and tendered a $10 note. As there was not enough change he was let on for a free ride. For the next couple of mornings the same thing happened and my brother thought, 'I'll fix this guy'. The next morning along came the same man with the same $10 note and my brother told him that he was lucky as there was enough change today and he could change it. Then from under his seat he produced a bag of one and two cent pieces. It was legal tender and the passengers laughed at the man's expression. Funny thing was he did not tender a $10 note on his next morning ride."
Today's Video Webpick: A nicely made compilation celebrating William Shatner's screen career: No, he's not dead, but he has been around forever, hamming it up in a career that began as Captain James T. Kirk in the 1960s TV series Star Trek and continues with Shatner's Golden Globe winning performance as Denny Crane in TV drama Boston Legal. Watch it here. These are the very best online videos from Ana's online magazine Spare Room.
