DAVID ADAMS writes about the odder side of life…
• Revelations following this week’s meeting between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un that during their brief encounter in Singapore, the US President had played a specially made four minute film – styled to resemble a movie trailer – on an iPad for Mr Kim. A ‘Destiny Pictures’ production, the supposed trailer for the film – labelled A Story of Opportunity for North Korea – features commanding images of Mr Trump and Mr Kim, a stirring soundtrack, and a narrator who suggests the future of the world hangs in the balance and that it’s the destiny of these two leaders to lead us into a new era. It is, according to the narrator, “a story about a special moment in time, when a man is presented with one chance that may never be repeated. What will he choose? To show vision and leadership? Or not?”. The film, which Mr Trump said Mr Kim “loved”, left many mystified although critics weren’t so kind with “shlocky”, “rubbish”, and “odd” among responses.
• A US lemonade brand has offered to pay for permits so kids across the nation can run a lemonade stand – and fines, if doing so gets them into trouble with local authorities. Country Time Lemonade, which is owned by Kraft Heinz, announced a “Country Time Legal-ade” program under which it will cover permit fees and fines of up to $US300 for lemonade stands owned by kids under the age of 14. “If you have a problem with your lemonade stand, the officers of Country Time Legal-ade are ready to take a stand for you,” the company says in a promotional video. After all, as they add: “When life gives you arcane laws, make lemonade.”
• World record time and this week it’s an attempt to create the world’s largest paper plane. A 19.5 metre-long plane, weighing about a ton, was reportedly unveiled at the Fitchburg Municipal Airport in the US state of Massachusetts this week. The plane is the creation of artist Jerry Beck, director of a local museum, who had aimed to break the world record for the largest paper plane to take flight but found the hanger was to narrow accommodate the necessary wing span width. That meant he had to make with a narrower wingspan and now hopes it will instead set a new world record for the “world’s largest paper plane artwork”. The plane did get lift-off outside of the hangar but it was thanks to a crane which hoisted it into the air and not due to natural lift.
