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Heroes and villains

New Zealand | The New Yorker | Prudish parents

New Zealand: no plebs please. Getty

Villain
New Zealand, which after more than two years of all but banning tourists is now being sniffy about who to let in. On Wednesday, tourism minister Stuart Nash said his post-Covid marketing push would “unashamedly” target “high-quality tourists”, rather than plebs “on $10 a day eating two-minute noodles”.

Villain
The New Yorker, which ran an expansive, 2,000-word piece on the importance of bookshops – and linked every book mentioned in it to a listing on Amazon. The offending links have since been removed.

Heroes
Italians, whose superior taste in pizza has forced Domino’s to leave their country. The American firm closed its last outlets in the home of pizza this week, only seven years after the first ones opened. It’s a wonder it lasted that long, says one Twitter user. Surely it was like “trying to sell snow in the North Pole”.

Villains
Prudish parents who asked York Dungeon to change the name of Dick’s Back, a ride themed on the 18th-century highwayman Dick Turpin. “We can only pity such a tortured mind,” says Carol Midgley in The Times. Some people’s entire day can be ruined by the sight of the “Minge Lane” road sign in Worcester, or “Bell End” in the West Midlands. At least Richard Nixon had the sense of humour to let his campaign badges read: “They can’t lick our Dick”.