Brian Rogers Rogers Rabbits www.sunlive.co.nz

I really need you to focus right now. Because a lot of important facts have been highlighted in the news, or popped into the addled Rabbit brain this week. They are conveniently arranged here into one document.

Read carefully and memorise, because you will be tested on this. Except for the piece about the Procrastinators' Club, which we will cover at a later date.

The numbers on the toaster usually refer to minutes. I know, you thought it was some random toasting level.

But apparently (you can try this at home), the numbers refer to the toasting minutes. Not all toasters have accurate timers, so don't go planning any important tasks based on Toaster Time, such as celestial navigation or programming the atmosphere re-entry of a space shuttle. However, it may be close enough to get your hardboiled eggs just right.

That shock of brief panic when introducing someone and their name momentarily escapes you…the Scots have a word for it. Tartle. Not to be confused with the dot on top of the lower case letters i and j, which is called a tittle. Not to be confused with a small turtle.

Decisions on the fluoridation of our water supplies are likely to now be made by district health boards…you know, medical professionals.

Instead of local councils, elected members generally bereft of meaningful experience or knowledge. This should not affect your toaster-timed, egg-water boiling project.

‘Last Month's Newsletter' is the name of the journal of the American Procrastinators' Club.

Nicknamed Shaggy from Scooby-Doo, the character has a real name. Norville Rogers. Way to go, cuzz!

Dr Seuss was once challenged to write a book using no more than 50 words. Hence, ‘Green Eggs and Ham'.

Most cars have a tiny triangle-shaped arrow on the fuel gauge, next to the icon of the petrol pump, advising which side of the car your filler cap is located.

Handy if you drive a few different cars and struggle to remember which is where.
Never noticed it? We'll wait here while you pop out to the car for a look.

Green peppers are actually red peppers that haven't yet turned red. Contrary to common belief amongst the Herbivorally Ignorant and supermarket signage, they are two separate varieties. Blue peppers haven't been invented yet. That we know of.
A teaspoon placed in the top of a carbonated drink bottle will not stop it going flat.

However, it could be a handy place to store a teaspoon in the unlikely event that you needed to access one, by the spoon end, in a hurry. Not sure what sort emergency would require that.

Probably the same incident that would demand all the drawers in the kitchen to be open at once, causing mayhem in the case of corner drawers, since it is apparently impossible to have two facing ones at 90 degrees open at the same time.

You think you know the names of the Seven Dwarfs? Before settling on the current crew, Disney apparently also considered: Tubby, Burpy, Hickey, Wheezy, Chesty, Deafy and Awful.

Stairway to litigation

A court case is underway this week, thrashing out whether the intro of Led Zeppelin's song ‘Stairway to Heaven' was plagiarised from the band Spirit.

The haunting guitar riff at the start of Led Zep's hit from 1971 does seem uncannily similar to a song written by Spirit in 1968. The two bands had a strong connection in the early years, performing together on occasions.

Sea otters hold hands when they sleep, so they don't drift apart. Awww.

Opium for babies was marketed in Britain in the 19th Century, under the name

‘Quietness'.

An Italian pastry maker mixed hazelnuts with chocolate during WWII in an effort to extend his chocolate ration. Thus inventing Nutella.

Tug of War was an Olympic event from 1900 to 1920.

Do the Locomotion

The demo derby is on this Saturday night at Baypark, after being postponed due to poor weather last weekend. Demolition derbies were first held at various fairs, race tracks, and speedways by independent promoters in the 1950s, according to Wikipedia.

There are unconfirmed reports of events occurring as far back as the 1930s utilising the abundant supply of worn-out Ford Model Ts. In 1896, two steam locomotives were collided before 40,000 spectators as a publicity stunt for the Missouri–Kansas–Texas Railroad, resulting in fatalities. The originator of the concept for auto demolition derbies is disputed. Some say the first was at Carrell Speedway in 1947.

Wrecks or racing?

Another source states a stock car racer created the concept for demolition derbies at New York State's Islip Speedway in 1958 after realising many people favoured wrecks to racing.

According to Auntie Wiki, the sport's popularity grew throughout the 1960s, becoming a standard of county fairs in rural areas. In 1963 a reported crowd of 20,000 packed into the Rowley Park Speedway in Adelaide to see Australia's first demolition derby.

The Pringles can was invented by a Mr Fredric Baur. He died in 2008 and his ashes were buried in one.

Hitler's nephew wrote an article in 1939, ‘Why I hate my uncle'. He then went to the USA, served in the US Navy and settled on Long Island.

QR codes are now being added to some cemeteries. Scanning the code on a gravestone links to online obituary and photographs of the deceased. 'Perished in head-on locomotive crash” is a possibility.

Or 'succumbed eating blue pepper.”

brian@thesun.co.nz

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