Sideswipe

To all those caring souls who have emailed the story of this girl, who was alone with no memory in a Phuket Hospital since the Boxing Day Tsunami, please stop as she has been reunited with her family and is safe and well.


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A reader from Herne Bay writes: "The well-heeled locals all saunter from their leafy villas and head to Jervois Rd to pick up the Weekend Herald and have a coffee or brunch at the numerous cafes. A popular hang out is 5 loaves and 2 fish where the footpath tables are full of Herne Bay-ites and it is also a popular stopping off point for those who walk their dogs. There are normally two or three of the canine coffee set loitering under the tables, but others arrive by way of BMW, Mercedes, or Audi. Last Saturday a Silver M-class Mercedes 4WD arrived with Derek and inside his new Doberman pup, Klaus. Derek spied his pals at a table kerb side, so popped the windows down an inch to give Klaus some fresh air, but left the keys in the car. Suddenly another dog came walking past with its owner and Klaus jumped up to look out, and his paws hit the automatic locking button on the doors, locking all four doors with him and the car keys inside. Imagine Derek's consternation? But all was solved when he hitched a ride on a mate's motor scooter home to get a spare set of keys.

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Apparently, some guy impersonating a cop has called dozens of fast-food restaurants over the last decade and told the manager that a particular employee was stealing and instructed the manager to strip search the accused. Amazingly, the managers obeyed. A girl celebrating her 18th birthday - in her first hour of her first day on the job at the McDonald's in Roosevelt, Iowa - was forced to strip, jog naked and assume a series of embarrassing poses, all at the direction of a caller on the phone, according to court and news accounts. The manager conducted a degrading 90-minute search of a waitress, though the man had called collect, and despite the assistant manager having read a company memo warning about hoax calls a month before.

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A reader writes: "Trying unsuccessfully to wrestle my 2 1/2-year-old into his PJs I managed to leverage some good behaviour by promising he could stay up to watch the Santa Parade at the end of One News. Having recently become acquainted with the idea of Santa, the boy was keen to clock the red guy in his 'dumb-boots'. One News promoted the item at every opportunity during the hour and we anticipated something great, but what we got was a half-assed effort, devoid of Christmas spirit and just a glimpse of the star of the show."