DAVID ADAMS looks at the odder side of life…
• There’s been some weird listings on Airbnb – remember Lucy the Elephant from last week’s StrangeSights? But things are about to get weirder with news this week that Airbnb was looking to give away $US1 million to help 10 people create “unconventional and unusual liveable spaces” which can be listed on the site. “We’re on the hunt for people who will challenge the very idea of a house,” the accommodation listings marketplace said in a statement on its website. Under the contest 10 people will be given $US100,000 each to build “the most unconventional Airbnb they can dream up”. Those wanting to make their pitch need to do so by 15th April. Airbnb has published images of some of its most unusual listings on the website to get the creative juices flowing – among them, a giant boot, a “potato hotel”, and a spaceship replica. PICTURE: Images of some of Airbnb’s listings via Airbnb website.
• It’s not everyday you have a work by one of the world’s most famous 20th century artists donated to the local thrift shop. But that’s what reportedly happened in North Carolina late last year when the Hotline Pink Thrift Shop in Kitty Hawk was donated a wooden carving which turned out to be a work by surrealist master Salvador Dali. The work, which was signed by Dali, was from a series of 100 carvings called The Divine Comedy which was commissioned by the Italian Government to celebrate the poet Dante Aligheri. The artwork was sold for $US1,200.
• Didn’t like the way the book ended? Don’t worry, there’s more than 1,200 alternatives to choose from. Sri Lankan author and illustrator Sybil Wettasinghe reportedly set a new Guinness World Record recently when she enlisted the aid of the country’s children to come up with alternative endings to her new book, Wonder Crystal. Some 1,250 were selected from more than 20,000 responses.
