Looking back over the past weeks and to the weeks ahead – to rate the noteworthy, the cringeworthy, the good, the bad, the ugly, and the truly amazing.
‘Theft’ grey area makes for a ripping yarn
Laying waste to the well established schoolyard maxim of ‘finders keepers, losers weepers’ comes the story of a cricketing patron who found himself on the wrong side of security guards and cricket authorities after a ball was smashed out of the ground at Seddon Park, during a T20 game between New Zealand and Pakistan last week.
Talking on the ACC’s (Alternative Commentary Collective), ‘Chris’ regaled the hosts with his down-to-Earth narrative, explaining how what he thought was an innocent action got him into more strife than he bargained for.
“‘We’d just gone outside for a smoke because they don’t let you smoke inside the grounds, obviously. So we’d literally just walked outside the front gates, right in front of me the ball just landed and my mate yelled out “Hey look at that, that’s the ball” and we both legged it.”’ (Source: “Jandal-clad Seddon Park ‘ball thief’ clears the air on ACC’s The Agenda podcast,” 18 January, www.nzherald.co.nz).
The quest to escape was corrected by a far speedier security guard than Chris was counting on and he was quickly apprehended. Rather than argue questionable interpretations of the law and ownership, Chris accompanied security to the ground and handed the ball back.
5 stars – a big win for ownership advocates everywhere.
Hotel ablutions facilities leave traveller dumbfounded
We all like a bit of privacy when we are taking care of calls of nature and we expect accommodation facilities to cater to that. Well, perhaps not. A tourist encountered a strange toiletry situation in their room at the Pullman Hotel in Rotorua that motivated them to canvass opinion online. Instead of a seperate room, toilet and cleansing was enclosed in a transparent cubicle in the same room as the bed, where the walls did not reach to the ceiling – leaving odours free to wander at will.
“Posting on social media, they asked whether it is standard for Kiwi hotels to have toilets ‘basically in the same room’. ‘Is this a cultural thing? It’s my first time visiting and I’m really confused at this architectural choice,’ they asked. The overwhelming response from Kiwis on the thread was this was not normal with many sharing their disgust at the design.” (Source: “Gross feature at Rotorua Pullman hotel shocks tourist.” 16 January, www.newshub.co.nz).
The good news is that the hotel’s owners have said they will be installing added ‘privacy solutions’ in the coming months. Though, to be fair, one wonders how the obvious design flaw was allowed to pass through to the commissioning stage.
1 star – honestly, common sense can’t be that difficult?
Italian city employs cutting edge science to hunt down errant dog owners
I own dogs and I pick up what they leave behind. I’m not marking myself out for special favour, it’s what’s expected. Strangely, not all dog owners act accordingly and happily leave their dogs’ excrement for other unfortunates to stumble into. It’s lazy, inconsiderate, and disgusting.
So when I read about a measure to combat the mess left behind by people too self-centred to clean up after their pets, I was intrigued. The government of the city of Bolzano and surrounding areas in Italy has mandated that all dog owners must submit a sample of their furry pal’s ‘stool’ to establish a DNA database, whereby they can police and prosecute owners who do not pick up their dog’s doings.
Apparently this measure will be funded by fines issued and was seen as a far better solution than previous efforts. Sometimes I will read something that is so surprising, I will laugh out loud and the following sentence satisfied that. “Law enforcement could only catch three or four of them because they have to go there and set up some kind of stakeout.” (Source: “Italian province orders DNA tests for all dogs to trace and fine owners in poo crackdown,” by Russell Hope, 19 January, www.news.sky.com).
That’s right, a dog poo stakeout. Imagine the lonely hours in the car, by the park, stale coffee and day old sandwiches, waiting with a camera for a dog to poo and the owner to walk off and leave it there. Not the best assignment.
5 stars – this story had me at ‘poo crackdown’ in the headline.
