Sideswipe: December 8: High expectations of sheep these days

There are some animals in Otago.

Old Christmas tradition

The Victorians had some really strange ideas about what served as an appropriate Christmas greeting. They liked to send out cards with dead birds on them, robins in particular, which related to ancient customs and legends. There’s a famous quotation about a sparrow flying through the hall of a castle while the nobility is celebrating Christmas: The moment from when it enters until it flies out is very brief, a metaphor for how quickly our lives pass. Apparently, killing a wren or robin was once a good-luck ritual performed in late December, and during the late 19th-century, cards featuring the bodies of these birds were sent to offer good luck in the New Year. (Via Collectors Weekly)

Spin-dried dudes

There’s a whole subreddit called Why Women Live Longer which is all about this phenomenon: men doing stupid, dangerous stunts because it would be cool to try. An example is this real-life Beavis & Butthead incident from Britain. The Daily Mail reports that firefighters in Epping, Essex, responded to a hilarious emergency: three men who were building a DIY skatepark in an industrial facility found a huge dryer and decided it would be fun to go for a spin. They were trapped inside for two hours. The intervention of firefighters was necessary because one of the men got his ankle trapped in the door and was unable to extricate himself.

What a bad investment looks like

Money well spent (The real David Beckham is on the right, I think).

The art of Christmas giving

1. Last year my dad got me a box of snacks. But they were all things from my childhood he would get me if I was upset about something. It was just filled with so much love and happy memories.

2. My mum always gives me a “care package” that includes: Toilet paper, paper towels, dish soap, laundry detergent and rubbish bags - bulk from Costco. I look forward to that every year. I don’t have to worry about buying that stuff for a couple of months.

3. Grandma told us every year: “Just get me something I can smoke, drink or eat.”