Sideswipe: December 18: Special zone for runner 8

Runner 8 can stop for some indoor rest and refreshments.

Bored child makes her marque on Audis

A man was recently sued by an Audi dealership in China's southern Guangxi region and had to pay a settlement of more than $10,000 after his young daughter casually scratched 10 luxury cars. The young girl's father reportedly accompanied a friend to the dealership, bringing his wife and daughter along. They were looking around at the nice cars and interacting with the staff, leaving the 3-year-old girl to her own devices. After understandably becoming bored, the little girl allegedly grabbed a stone and proceeded to scratch doodles on to the paint of no less than 10 Audi vehicles, including an Audi Q8 valued at nearly 1 million RMB ($142,000).

Feelers navidad

Beware when buying your Christmas trees: it could have a surprise feature, Birmingham Live warns. It is sometimes assumed that brown, knotty clumps among the branches of the festive trees are pine cones but they might be sacs containing up to 200 praying mantis eggs. With a centrally-heated living room a perfect environment for the creepy crawlies to hatch, you could have more guests than you catered for.

Top Kardashian gaffe of 2019

A sort of misunderstanding took place when Kylie Jenner threw a birthday party for her friend Stassie Karanikolaou. The theme for the party was Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale — specifically, the dystopian novel's recent TV adaptation, which depicts Gilead, a place where government is ruled by the word of God, and where, amid dwindling birth rates, fertile women are enslaved as "handmaids" and made to bear the ruling class's children. In a series of Instagram Stories, Jenner took her followers through the party, which included a red-and-white colour scheme, handmaid-regulation red gowns and white bonnets for the guests, and "under his eye" tequila cocktails — for that totalitarian-San Fernando Valley-chic vibe. In the Stories, as Karanikolaou walks into the well-appointed mansion, she says, "Praise be, bitches," while Jenner is heard shouting, "Welcome to Gilead!". (Via The New Yorker)