Sideswipe: October 12: Get your cans out in Christchurch

The Christchurch City Council likes a bit of sexist innuendo in their marketing.

I used to think ...

... That the little piggy that went to market was going grocery shopping.

... The garage door opener would work from anywhere. On a family road trip, days from home, I was fiddling with it and hit the button. Then I spent the rest of the trip consumed with worry that I'd let burglars in to rob us blind.

... My daughter, as a toddler, used to think that prayers ended with an emphatic "Oh man!" instead of Amen (ah-men).

... That young and old versions of the same character were played by the same actor, and they just waited for them to get older to finish the movie.

... That if someone stole top-secret documents from the White House they would get arrested.

The greatest love of all

At least 12 dogs were on board the Titanic when it sank. These canines all belonged to first-class passengers. The actual number of dogs on board the Titanic is unknown. First-class passenger Ann Elizabeth Isham travelled with her Great Dane. When the Captain commanded women and children to board the lifeboats, Isham raced to the kennel to fetch her beloved pet. As Isham lined up with her Great Dane, a crewman told her that the dog was too big for the lifeboat. Rather than saying goodbye to the Great Dane, Isham gave up her place on the lifeboat and chose to stay on the ship. There are accounts that both crew and surviving passengers saw a female body floating in the water with her frozen arms wrapped tightly around a Great Dane. Those tasked with recovering bodies from the ocean never found Isham. She is one of only four first-class female passengers who did not survive the disaster.

Did not see that coming

A 65-year-old female temp worker in Japan sent 4.4 million yen (NZ$55K) to a man who told her he worked on the International Space Station and needed rocket fare to return to Earth so he could be with her. Shockingly, the man was lying, and he kept the money.