Alison Jones of Westmere writes: "A sense of irony was in depressingly short supply among the thousands in Saturday's anti-mining march in Auckland. A bold and brilliant quartet of street performers in suits, with briefcases, stood on the footpath with signs reading 'Under Mining is Our Business', 'Mining = $$ = Happiness', and the like. Their hilarious - and plainly satirical - tableau earned them a dispiriting amount of abuse, and even threats of physical violence from the passing parade. Several admirers had to take up positions nearby to explain to the hotheads that real mining magnates don't make a habit of standing in Queen St with placards."
Speaking from a political viewpoint
This is an extract from one of our local primary school trustee election candidates, says John: "In particular, I have an ability to distil conceptual intricacies into succinct, definable aspects, which in turn enables clarity in decision-making." Has the candidate been taking lessons from government people?
Pay and display ... twice
Victoria would be interested to know if anyone's had problems with Tournament Parking and txt-a-park. "When one tries to use txt-a-park in a Tournament carpark, the pay-and-display machine asks you to use another payment method. After you make the payment another way (cash or credit card), you receive a text saying your txt payment's also gone through. So they've charged you twice? To Tournament's credit, if you email their office they will refund you (via a cheque in the post ... ). But why don't they just disable the txt option until it's fixed?"
If you can't beat them, cook them
A Hebridean island which spent £600,000 ($1.26 million) ridding itself of rats has now become overrun with rabbits. The last rat was seen on the tiny island of Canna four years ago after specialist pest controllers from New Zealand laid deadly bait around the 8km-long island. But now islanders are complaining that thousands of rabbits have invaded the island because there are no rats to keep their numbers down. The island's only restaurant has responded to the bounty and put on dishes of rabbit and cranberry with pistachio, and rabbit pie in a rosemary and thyme cream sauce. (Source: The Telegraph.co.uk)
Spanner in the works
David Sheppard from Canada has difficulty in mustering much sympathy for Robert Howell and his problem with the wheel of his bike. "Perhaps I am just a grumpy old curmudgeon, but first, I think he should have been carrying his own spanners in a tool kit on his bike. Secondly, a service station is not a charity but a business enterprise. As an amateur mechanic, I used to lend my tools. Some came back damaged and others never did return to me. A professional mechanic commented that 'we all learn the hard way not to lend our stuff'. Had the spanner slipped and been damaged, would Mr Howell have purchased it? Or would the cost of the spanner been docked from the employee's wages, with Mr Howell long gone?"
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Today's Webpick: This ad for a real and hilarious product called The Better Marriage Blanket... Go here.
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Check out today's Herald cartoon.
