Sideswipe: July 23: Don't put a ring on it!

Earlier this year Norfolk Island resident Susan Prior was disheartened to see yet another sea creature with one of those plastic rings from a milk or juice bottle around the neck of a mullet. "These fish snuffle through the sand looking for food making it so easy for a ring or hair tie to flip over their noses and get stuck," she explained. But on closer inspection she realised there was something odd about the ring. "This one looked a shiny metallic gold, with a lot less algal growth compared to the plastic ones. I recalled that someone had posted on our local community social media pages about a large man's wedding ring that had gone missing in the bay earlier this year, so I decided to see if I could find the possible owner. It didn't take long for my suspicion to be confirmed; we now have a poor mullet weighed down with someone's (expensive) gold wedding ring." In a similar vein, in 2017, a Canadian woman lost her wedding ring while pulling weeds. Impressively, it was retrieved 13 years later wrapped around a carrot that had been dug up for supper.

Lost in translation

Philip from Good Returns published a story about a grant for tradie mental health awareness platform Tools Down. Somehow it ended up being pinched by a bogus site out of Maharashtra in India and the translation software couldn't accurately translate 'tradie'. The original story explained…" there are specific struggles a tradie faces that can take an overwhelming toll on mental health. You may wake up one morning and find your ute broken into and all your tools stolen or suffer a work injury that takes you off the tools." This was translated into: "When I wake up one morning, my uterus can be broken and all my tools stolen, or I can be hit by an occupational accident that causes them to come off."

Portable radio strap on device

A reader writes: "I came across this cover page in an old American magazine, Radio Craft, for a portable radio back in 1936. Looks great with the battery belt and the aerial as part of the sun shade. If you had that today would you be able to wear it and pass through Customs before boarding an international flight?