Sideswipe: March 15: Remembering the waterbed

In the 1980s waterbeds were big ... and heavy. You'd have to run the garden hose from a tap in the bathroom, or in the window to the bedroom to fill the thing up and the giant bladders held anywhere from 300 to 900 litres. One advertising slogan read: "Two things are better on a waterbed. One of them is sleep." These Kiwis on Twitter remember the hey day ...

1. We owned two between 1980 and 87. We had no heating in our flat so we use to stay in the bed as it was like a giant hot water bottle.

2. My parents had this huge waterbed ... built-in radio and speakers in the headboard ... brown velvet ... gorgeous ... not!!

3. God help you if the heater stopped working! It was like lying on a slab of ice!

4. Very comfortable. When I was pregnant it moulded around my belly and supported it in a way an ordinary bed doesn't.

5. I had one in the mid-1980s. Dreadful bloody thing ... gave me mild motion sickness.

6. it was noisy every time you moved. Great sloshes.

7. My aunty and uncle had one ... like sleeping on a life raft

8. As kids, my brother and I used to play "boats" on it.

9. My parents owned a finance company in the late 80s that was purely for waterbed finance.

10. I don't know if it's an urban legend but someone told me about someone having a giant worm living in theirs. Seems legit.

You'll be going nowhere without these

Two to three times per week Dave ambles from his Takapuna office along the beach and back for a lunchtime stroll. He writes: "Early last week, leaning against a fence near the beach access were two paddles ... 'Oh dear,' I thought, someone has loaded up the kayaks and driven off without the paddles - nice that no one else has stolen them.' Now a week and a half later they are still there ... Again, a nice reflection on society that no one has flogged them, but the owner may want them back."

Mildly interesting

Godwits have been migrating for over a week now, but on March 7 the first transmitter-carrying birds left Foxton and are now 1700km into the journey to China. One young bird, now 3 years old, is on his first northwards migration. (Via Miranda Naturalists' Trust)

The Cloud now has a greater carbon footprint than the airline industry. A single data centre can consume the equivalent electricity of 50,000 homes. (MIT Press Reader)

A new study suggests that video game play contributes to performance excellence in laparoscopic surgery. As a result, the participants who played video games more than three hours per week recorded 37 per cent fewer errors and 27 per cent faster completion. Current video game players made 32 per cent fewer errors, performed 24 per cent faster, and scored 26 per cent better overall than their non playing colleagues. (Rosser Top Gun Laparoscopic Skills and Suturing Program)

Legit as a shortening of legitimate has been around since the 1890s. It started as theatre slang for things associated with legitimate (as opposed to vaudeville or burlesque) theatre. From the 1920s onwards, it was opposed to underworld or shady occupations or places. If you were "on the legit", you were being honest.