Sideswipe: December 15: Safer avocados

Seedless avocados have been developed to stop Millennials slicing off their hands as they fritter away their house deposits. Photo / Supplied

Safer avocados

Seedless avocados have been developed to stop Millennials slicing off their hands as they fritter away their house deposits, gorging on them ... The strange new product, which looks more like a stumpy cucumber, is being sold through British retail chain Marks & Spencer and is officially known as a "cocktail avocado," and is 100 per cent edible, skin and all. It has been suggested it is a response to the rise of "avocado hand" aka injuries cause by that troublesome stone.

In the UK these wounds are so common that the British Association of Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgeons recently called for warning labels to be slapped on avocados. (Source: Eater.com)

Source for the goose

During James Cook's first expedition to New Zealand in 1769 the crew of the Endeavour marked the season by feasting on "Goose pye" for their Christmas dinner, all while battling heavy seas off the tip of the North Island. Trouble was there were no geese, so the crew had to improvise ... the ship's noted botanist, Joseph Banks, shot a gannet instead. (Via NZhistory.govt.nz)

Seeking Mission Bay Good Samaritan

"Last week I stupidly left a 'conference' satchel on the roof of my car," writes Ian Simpson. "It contained months' worth of notes on an Auckland history topic. I then drove off ... I drove the route again twice the next day but there was no sign of the satchel. I left a description with the police but had little hope that I would ever see the notes again.

"A couple of days later there was a knock at my door and a kind woman handed me the satchel which she had found in Patterson Ave in Mission Bay. The satchel had stayed on the roof for about 4km and had then fallen off on the moderately steep hill. She had found an email address in the satchel and used that to find me and my address on the electoral role.

'I was so surprised and delighted at the return of the notes that I did not remember to get her contact details so that I could thank her properly. Perhaps if she sees this note in Sideswipe she could contact you?"

Apple in hiding: "Tearing up and throwing away an old couch, I struck gold", writes one reader. Photo / Supplied

Got a Sideswipe? Send your pictures, links and anecdotes to Ana at ana.samways@nzherald.co.nz