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Storm stories: During the mayhem of Northland's extreme conditions last week a businesswoman arrived home during the weather bomb. She had missed the message from her husband telling her not to open the garage because he'd stored the new double-glass ranchslider in there and the winds were blowing. As he predicted, the winds swooped in when she entered the garage and the glass doors lost their balance. She managed to prevent them smashing to the ground and began yelling for help to her husband, who was in the house only metres away, with his favourite music on full blast. Some time later, struggling to balance a glass door three times her size, she managed to get to her mobile, dial the landline and get hubby to rescue her.
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In St Paul, Minnesota, they call it the Geek Prom, an annual dance for, well, geeks. And one of the traditions is the Geek Streak. But police officers Tracie McHarg and Genaro Valentin, who were providing security for the dance, apparently don't hold much with tradition. As the streakers ran by, one police officer sprayed them with pepper spray. Afterwards, the two arrested them for indecent exposure. (Source: Reason.com)
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How about this for ingenuity? A reader writes: "The owner of the childcare centre attended by one of my granddaughters in Liverpool has quelled the uproar and potential expense when an icecream van arrives by telling the kids that if the chimes are sounding it means he's run out of icecream."
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The Yunessun Spa Resort in Hakone, Japan, already has several specialty spas where guests can submerge their nakedness in coffee, wine and even sake, but now they're offering the Ramen Bath. The bath, shaped like a ramen bowl, contains pepper-flavoured water coloured a light, milky brown to look like tonkotsu (pork bone) ramen soup and includes the addition of "noodles" made of bathwater additives. The water contains collagen and garlic extracts, which are supposed to help produce beautiful skin and aid moisture retention. (Source: Neatorama.com)
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A number of people expressed this sentiment after a reader's tale of being caught up in a prime ministerial shopping trip: "Your correspondent moaning about Helen Clark's frock shop expedition should get a life. Compared with leaders elsewhere, our PM's footprint is very light. The disruption described in the commentary is trivial in comparison to what happens in most countries when the PM or President moves around. Indeed, compared with other countries, the "normality" of the PM's life is striking. For example, there are few countries where a trip from Auckland to Wellington may involve sitting next to the PM in economy class. And, given her workload, which beggars most people's imagination, a little tolerance for the rare occasions when she can do the things most of us take for granted (like shopping) might be forthcoming."
