Sideswipe: July 14: New Zealand gets an extension

By Ana Samways

Sideswipe - ana.samways@nzherald.co.nz·NZ Herald·

13 Jul, 2015 05:00 PM2 mins to read

Is that New Zealand, of are you just happy to see me?

Opinion by Ana SamwaysLearn more

Weird but true

1. In 1912, a Paris orphanage held a raffle - the prizes were live babies.

2. Corn Flakes were invented as part of John Kellogg's anti-masturbation crusade.

3. Hours before being assassinated on April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King Jnr took part in a motel pillow fight.

4. Princeton researchers successfully turned a live cat into a functioning telephone in 1929.

5. Kim Jong Il wrote six operas.

(From Mental Floss - 17 Amazing Facts that Sound Made Up)

Child schools graphic designer

The Financial Times published a story on the Microsoft-owned hit game, titled The Business Behind Minecraft, and a 6-year-old from London wrote in to correct the paper for a graphic it published to accompany the piece. "Sir, Your big Minecraft picture on the front page of your Life & Arts section (July 4) is wrong," the letter states. "In Minecraft, smoke does not come out of chimneys and doors cannot be a light colour. Doors need four boxes at the top of them. Trees have to be round and not any other shape and you put the trees in a rectangle shape. The clouds have to be 3D. You put the clouds upright. The roof of a house cannot be blue. Zorawar Bhangoo (age 6)."

Architect humour

Context Architects in Kingsland has a sign for its reserved parking that reads: "Unauthorised vehicles will be used as a getaway car in an incredibly daring daylight robbery."

Daft slice of life

Police in Burlingame, California, recorded the following:
7.22pm July 2: A person waiting for their pizza to be delivered called police, said that when the delivery driver arrived a neighbour took it. An officer responded and determined the complaint was unfounded and that the neighbour had also ordered pizza.
8.03pm July 2: A person wrongly accused of pizza theft reported being upset.