Sideswipe: December 20: Cool glass table

Cat On A Cool Glass Table. Photo / Supplied

Cat On A Cool Glass Table. Photo / Supplied

Christmas Eve can be heart-stopper

Christmas Eve is the worst day of the year for heart attacks, researchers found, with risk rising nearly 40 per cent. More specifically, research showed that most heart attacks hit about 10pm that day.

The study analysed the timing of 283,014 heart attacks reported to the Swedish coronary care unit registry between 1998 to 2013. "We do not know for sure but emotional distress with acute experience of anger, anxiety, sadness, grief, and stress increases the risk of a heart attack," researcher David Erlinge at Lund University's Department of Cardiology, told The Telegraph. "Excessive food intake, alcohol, long-distance travelling may also increase the risk."

Pasta-less penne, rare requests for steaks and a lunch of ranch — strange dining requests

1. I used to work at an Italian restaurant and I had a woman once order a Penne with Chicken and Broccoli ... a tasty dish to be sure, but the lady requested that we make it with spaghetti pasta instead of penne because she "is allergic to penne".
2. Had a guy order a "steak, very rare". "How rare would you like it?" I asked him. "Tell the cow about fire," was the response. When I asked his mate the same question, he said: "walk it through a warm room".
3. A mother and her son, who was about 8, came in to the restaurant at which I waited tables for lunch. The mother asked her son what he wanted to eat, and he replied with "ranch". I politely asked if he meant, like, a salad with ranch dressing? Or hot chips with ranch dressing on the side? She looked at me embarrassed and clarified — he wanted a soup bowl full of ranch dressing ...

Fairy never too old for Christmas

Photo / Supplied

"This porcelain doll was first put on top of a Christmas tree for my grandfather's first birthday in 1901. She has had several outfits over the ages, and this one since 1974. Five generations have now enjoyed Christmas with her overview." — David Elms, Newmarket, Ontario (Via AtlasObscura)