Mother to suburban legend in an instant
"Twenty years ago I was mother help on a 12-year-old's school camp," writes Heather Pattison, "with tents in one paddock and long-drop loos some distance away in the next one. One evening after dark I was heading to the loo only to spot a group of torches meandering back to camp. Irresistible. Naturally I crouched down behind the gate and waited for the young male voices to get closer ... and closer. As they approached the gate I leaped up and yelled "BOO!" The results were spectacular. Some months later at a school disco a young man marched up to me and opened the conversation with, 'YOU'RE that mother!' Yes, I am, son."
You're a gas, Dad
"When young I was building my first boat and was about to alter a car fuel tank inlet with a welding torch," explains Bryce Strong. "Concerned about explosive petrol fumes, I had almost filled the tank with water, and had placed it on the other side of a concrete block wall, and tied the welding torch to a length of stick so I could reasonably safely test if it was safe to proceed. As I concentrated on getting the flame into the tank outlet, my father came up behind me and yelled 'BANG' very loudly - scared me silly!"
A memory traced to the sauce
"Aw, Purple Death ... the rite of passage for any teen growing up in West Auckland in the 80s," writes a reader, remembering fondly. "A drink we talked our friend's brother (over from the UK) into drinking. Somehow we got from Oratia to Puhoi singing I'll say goodbye even though I'm blue, even though we were supposed to be going to the airport. To this day he still remembers the taste. Rather ghastly but it did the trick."
Screening for safety testers
High-test safety glass was developed jointly by five American companies during the 1930s. It had an inner layer of polyvinyl acetal resin. This meant that you could smash a man's face into a pane of the glass, and it would crack but not shatter and cut the poor safety-glass tester to shreds.
Video: WatchMe is my corporate overlords foray into humour. I'm going to link to some stuff, but not because they told me to...The revival of The Late Night Big Breakfast resurrects the deadpan humour of Leigh Hart and Jason Hoyte and around The Water Cooler is also worth a watch.
Video: Jonah Lomu as he appeared in this Flight of The Conchords episode (scroll along to approx 5:10 to see)
Video: This German battle tank was developed for the West German army in the 70s and has a fully stabilized main gun, so even if you're flying along at speed on uneven ground, your gun remains steady, fixed on its target. See demo with mug of beer...
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