"I was looking forward to the passing lane at the Brynderwyns, as I was stuck behind a logging truck," writes a reader. "But then, lo and behold, another one pulls out and overtakes so no one can pass."
Don't smile, you're facing the camera
Why do people in old photos not smile? Mark Twain explained: "A photograph is a most important document, and there is nothing more damning to go down to posterity than a silly, foolish smile caught and fixed forever." The belief was that smiling made you look stupid. You'd rarely find a portrait painted with a grinning subject. Says scholar Nicholas Jeeves: "By the 17th century in Europe it was a well-established fact that the only people who smiled broadly, in life and in art, were the poor, the lewd, the drunk, the innocent and the entertainment." In 1703, a French writer lamented "people who raise their upper lip so high ... that their teeth are almost entirely visible". Not only was this discourteous, he asked - why do it at all? After all, "nature gave us lips to conceal them".
Secrets of a top town
Sheryn writes: "I read this in the Straight Furrow newspaper in a Bayleys Real Estate profile for the Waipiata Country Hotel. After listing the Waipiata township's best features - a bowling green and town hall - it said: 'Tourist attractions in the settlement include a former mental hospital dating back to the turn of last century, and the town cemetery.' A must go-to destination!"
