Sideswipe: September 6: $2 shop closed on urgent business

Peter notes the $2 Shop in Grey Lynn is closed on urgent business. Photo / Supplied

Strange experiences with other peoples' parents

"When I was in high school, I was having dinner at my girlfriend's parents' place one night and she has two older brothers that were there as well. So I was setting my plate down at the table when suddenly I feel someone slap my ass, I turn around and it was her dad. We both just looked at each other and then he apologises and says he thought I was one of his sons. I could tell he was pretty embarrassed. That was an awkward dinner."

Say what? New words to slip into your next conversation ...

Overtourism: Where a site or destination becomes crowded out or in some way spoiled by too many visitors. Both Amsterdam and Venice have notably been struggling with overtourism this year.
Buddymoon: A honeymoon, but with friends and family (buddies) along for the trip.
Creepshot: Typically a non-consensual, sexualised photograph of a woman taken in public on a smartphone and shared on the internet. Creep refers to the discreet, voyeuristic, and inappropriate nature of the snapshot, hence shot. The images tend to be of buttocks and cleavage.

Anguished handbag. Photo / Supplied

Eat like a gibbon

To raise awareness and funds for the Gibbon Protection Society of Malaysia, Grace Watson is spending a month eating only what a gibbon would eat and raising money for her cause on Givealittle. Most days she will have scrambled eggs for breakfast with spirulina or herbal tea. For lunch it's fruit — apples, bananas, mandarin and edible insects. Dinner is mostly a mix of salads or slaws of grated beetroot, carrot, apple, with a squeeze of lime and some seeds, but unlike the gibbon Watson includes cooked food like vegetable soups. She explained that although she would like to entirely commit to the animals' diet in order to draw attention to the endangered primates, she can't be fully authentic because unlike the gibbon she is unable to break down nutrients from leaves. So far the gibbons will benefit to the tune of $1200 for Watson's efforts.

One more strange name

A reader writes: "My husband had a mate at work, his name was Long No, they called him elongated refusal!"