Sideswipe

Call yourself a foodie? (At least it's not KFC).

Former Critic editor Holly Walker, responsible for the handy How to Rape guide in the Otago student magazine, has just been appointed the Greens' media officer. Wonder what Green MP Sue Bradford, who talked publicly about being raped when she was 16, thinks about that?

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There are two sides to every story: This week an anonymous reader complained about a mother and a grizzling baby being reduced to tears after being kicked out of a Parnell cafe by the owner last Thursday. Today the affronted mother writes wanting Sideswipe to name the cafe to warn other mothers not to go there. Sideswipe contacted the Verve cafe for its side of the story. Owner Andrew Burley remembers vividly that the women were at the farthest table outside, but he could still hear the crying in the kitchen. After 10 minutes and three separate complaints from customers, he asked his manager to go out and ask the mother to take the baby for a walk around the block. Burley says the woman and her heavily pregnant friend refused. When Burley went out himself and asked again, tempers on both sides flared. "I get babies in here all the time and this is the first time I've had to ask someone to leave," he said. "Normal parents get up and take baby out [so as not to] inflict the disturbance on other customers. These women were determined to make something of it." He suggests the first letter to Sideswipe claiming to be from customers near the women who were not disturbed was probably written by the women themselves.

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A reader was cleaning a dead insect off her outside pillar using a Handee Ultra paper towel. After a swift wipe, she noticed the green dye from the decorative pear design on the towel had stained the pillar. Looking closely at the packaging she noticed a tiny warning stating: "To reduce the possibility of ink transfer while using paper towels, use the unprinted side." So, who would have thought you had to read the paper towel manual first?

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On his George FM show on Saturday, World fashion designer Frances Hooper gushed over the salacious news that Hollywood director Lee Tamahori had been arrested for prostitution on Sunset Boulevard while dressed in drag. But he confused the movie man and the former MP, starting his what's-the-big-deal spiel with: "John Tamihere, he's my idol."