Sideswipe: May 16: Great gift idea... in theory

"My nephews' faces on pillows for a Mother's Day gift was a great idea in theory," says sir_dancelot on Reddit.

Bathtub tweets bring unexpected results

British artist Hector Janse van Rensburg tweeted a picture of himself in his bathtub with a bottle of Radox bath gel in the background. "Despite the alluring exploration of the male form combined with a strong brand placement this is not a sponsored tweet," he wrote. To his surprise, however, Radox sent him a free pack of assorted Radox products. Sensing he was on to a good thing, Hector then decided to tweet another picture of himself in the bath, this time with a drawing of an Aston Martin. The social media people for the luxury car brand reached out and sent him a car ... a dinky-sized one on a mount.

Top marks for confusion

A reader writes: "Could this be the most useless answer ever to a question on Trade Me (regarding the size of a woman's top)? Question: What is the measurement across the bust please? Answer: Hello there sorry but lost my tape measure so cannot do it for you sorry if I find it I will put it some where and cannot find it now I will look for it again."

A case of legal overkill

According to Weird Universe, Emily Piper and her husband went to court in January in Spokane, Washington, to seek a formal restraining order against a kindergarten boy. Piper said the boy had been hassling their daughter (trying to kiss her) and that Balboa Elementary School officials seemed unable to stop him.

Coming off the rails

The Victorians blamed train travel for some forms of mental illness, although it was probably due to anxiety caused by the novel experience. This from Atlas Obscura: "As the railway grew more popular in the 1850s and 1860s, trains allowed travellers to move about with unprecedented speed and efficiency, cutting the length of travel time drastically. But according to the more fearful Victorians, these technological achievements came at the considerable cost of mental health. As Edwin Fuller Torrey and Judy Miller wrote in The Invisible Plague: The Rise of Mental Illness from 1750 to the Present, trains were believed to 'injure the brain'. In particular, the jarring motion of the train was alleged to unhinge the mind and either drive sane people mad or trigger violent outbursts from a latent 'lunatic'. Mixed with the noise of the train car, it could, it was believed, shatter nerves."

Spotted at the Osaka Castle Museum.

A real estate agency in Queensland knows how to market themselves... by offering free avocado toast for a year! Geddit?

Picture this: Photographs of the homes of Hong Kong residents which have been dubbed "coffin homes" and branded "an insult to human dignity" by the United Nations.

Video: Not bank marketing (but it should be)...

Got a Sideswipe? Send your pictures, links and anecdotes to Ana at ana.samways@nzherald.co.nz