KEY POINTS:
A mother of 10-year-old twins was in a hurry to get them to their after-school activities. Frantic, she got the children strapped into the car then decided to tow the wheelie bin down the long driveway, as she does every week. Except this week, because of her frazzled state of mind, by the time she got to the end of the drive she'd forgotten all about the wheelie bin and drove from Meadowbank to St Heliers in peak-hour traffic with the bin attached.
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Russian composer Peter Tchaikovsky (1840-1893) was one of those smart people who are sometimes quite mad. According to Mental Floss magazine, Tchaikovsky loved to compose, but he hated to conduct. Once at a gala opening concert at Carnegie Hall in 1891 Tchaikovsky conducted with one hand firmly on top of his head, because he feared his head would fall off. Then there was the Hungarian Franz Liszt (1811-1886), who was one of the first rock stars and received so many requests for a lock of his hair that he finally bought a dog, snipping off patches of fur to send to his admirers. (More classical music scandals at MentalFloss.com)
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More than 100 survivors gathered in Tennessee for the Lightning Strike and Electric Shock Survivors International World Conference. Steve has gone through 38 operations. Marianne still feels disoriented and walks into tables and door frames. Mike doesn't need crutches any more. Linda is so overcome by her tears that she can barely speak. She was hit by lightning four times in 24 years. They report mysterious pains, panic attacks and bouts of severe confusion, and, because lightning rarely leaves burn scars, the challenge of convincing the rest of the world to believe them. (Source Der Spiegel)
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A reader writes of the ValeN.Z.ia T-shirts.
"'Vale' in Latin means goodbye, farewell and is quite commonly used at funerals to farewell the dead. Whatever happened to the tried and true red socks?"
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Kristy Atkinson recently bought some Nut Treat Muesli Bars. But she couldn't taste any nuts. "After looking at the ingredients list, I noticed it states peanuts 2 per cent and coconut 1.5 per cent. Perhaps the treat is in finding the nuts."
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Aaron Stone was a little disturbed about the guerilla gardening item. "Abandoned land used by the gardeners may have been left that way because of toxins in the soil which haven't yet been cleaned up. While their motives are good, a dose of dioxin in the radishes is not my idea of a healthy meal!"
