A future gambler...
To celebrate our daughter's university graduation, we decided to try a buffet restaurant at SkyCity. An apparent design fault has the signposted route skirting the entrance of the casino's gambling floor to reach the eatery via a short escalator ride. We were early, so waited in the restaurant foyer at the top of the escalator for our daughter and our 4-year-old grandson, who duly arrived by lift. The boy was in a restless mood, requiring a handy diversion, and was excited when I suggested he and I take a quick trip down the escalator and back. A security guard barred our way, saying we had be over 20 to go "to the casino". I offered identification to prove I was three times that age, but he said that wouldn't cover junior. So I had to tell the disappointed wee fellow he would have to wait until he was old enough to come back and break into his piggybank to clean out the lion's den.
Laughter can be hurtful
The British Medical Journal reviewed research on harms arising from laughter and produced a wide-ranging list of laughing-related dangers, from asthma attacks, protrusion of abdominal hernias, jaw dislocation, and stress incontinence, cardiac and oesophageal rupture and cerebral tumours. The authors concluded "Laughter is not purely beneficial. The harms it can cause are immediate and dose-related, the risks being highest for Homeric (uncontrollable) laughter".
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