Sideswipe

A toilet cleaner in the shape of a windsurfer to hang on the rim, surf the porcelain waters and keep the bowl clean and odour-free.

Who says Paul Holmes doesn't have a sense of humour? According to the Newstalk ZB website, which allows you to contact its presenters, an email addressed to grumpy@newstalkzb.co.nz will reach his paulness in person.


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For a high fashion label obsessed with who is wearing it, Karen Walker sure is casual about spelling when name-dropping. On www.karenwalker.com, you'll find mention of Alley Sheady, Woodie Allen, Clare Danes, Kate Banchett, Kate Winslett and Michele Gondry. Could they mean Ally Sheedy, Woody Allen, Claire Danes, Cate Blanchett, Kate Winslet and Michel Gondry, perhaps?


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Connecticut mother Guita Sazan Silverstein, 43, was arrested after she allegedly refused to let rescuers break the window of her 1999 Audi to free her toddler, who was accidentally locked in the car on a hot summer day. According to police, Silverstein wanted to drive home to get a spare key. She was charged with reckless endangerment and risk of injury to a minor. "I think within moments of the 911 call, someone decided this would be a classic story about someone worried about an Audi's glass before her son's health. It's outrageous," said the woman's lawyer. (Source: the Boston Globe).

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Researchers from the Adelaide and Meath Hospital in Ireland told a convention in Chicago that two-thirds of their patients who received injections into the buttock muscle had not received the full dose of medicine because existing needles are not long enough to reach beyond the fat.

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In a political race between two African-Americans, Don Samuels was elected again to the Minneapolis City Council in November, despite (or thanks to) his 2004 statements that he can effectively serve the city's blacks because he is descended from "house slaves" in the South rather than "field slaves". (Source: News of the Weird)

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The mysterious death of the rooster who lived near the Southeastern Arterial on-ramp is solved. A reader, who wishes to be known as Rikky, reports that Russell the Rooster was killed by an NZ Post truck at 5:30am last Monday. "It was a freak accident," says Rikky. "And from now on, every time I give way to an NZ Post truck, I will think back to the fateful day of Monday the 23rd of January, 2006 ... The chicken who dared to cross the road."