KEY POINTS:
Pity the poor souls in McGehan Close, Owairaka. Most people in New Zealand have now heard of their street, thanks to National Party leader John Key's "underclass" speech last week, but it seems even many Aucklanders have no idea where Owairaka is. On Friday a Sideswipe correspondent scoffed at Mr Key for telling bFM radio that McGehan Close was in South Auckland. Then all day Saturday Radio Live news bulletins (compiled in Auckland) referred to it constantly as being in West Auckland. For the information of readers, McGehan Close is within spitting distance of Mt Albert Rd, could quite properly be called part of Mt Albert and is very definitely part of the Auckland City Council's territory, not Manukau City or Waitakere City.
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Sudan Provost, 40, walked into a bank in Sacramento, California, quietly announced to employees that he had come to "rob" it, but then handed a teller his driver's licence and a money order to be cashed. The teller asked if he had an account, and Provost replied, "This is not a joke. I have a gun. I do this for a living." However, he opened his bag to reveal he had no gun and then asked for a tissue for his runny nose. The teller said she didn't have one. Provost said he'd be right back and walked across the street to a drugstore, and by the time he had returned, police were on the scene. (Source : News of the Weird)
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Michael Mulcahy writes: "Your correspondent Peter Thorpy is adamant that the pink house at Mission Bay has always been white. Sorry, sir, but you are wrong. Between the years 1936 and 1942 my sister and I used to come from Morrinsville to spend some of our school holidays with my uncle and aunt (Jan Coyle's parents) and during those years the house was definitely pink. We used to refer to it as the pink house by the beach. It was not until the late 1940s that the colour was changed, certainly after my uncle and aunt's tenure. Jan's brother lives in Morrinsville and he would certainly confirm that the above is true and I am sure some of my surviving cousins would verify my statement."
