Sideswipe: All doughnations welcome

A reader writes:

"Saw the best safety billboard on the way from Auckland to Tauranga. As well as the usual safety ones about slowing down in the wet and giving cyclists 1.5 metres, this one said, 'Sun bright? Wear shades'. I'm sorry? Who felt the need to put up a sign to tell me that if it's sunny, I might want to put my sunglasses on? Because, obviously, there I was swerving into oncoming traffic and mowing down pedestrians with glee until I saw that sign and decided to reach for the Oakleys."

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Fergie Pearce writes:

"Today I visited a laboratory testing centre in Orewa. All the usual magazines had been removed from the waiting room area. I was told they had been removed as a precaution against cross-contamination by infected people breathing and coughing over them, as a precaution against swine flu. A commendable move, but does this mean the end of public libraries?"

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New York police made a gruesome discovery while preparing to tow a heavily ticketed van - a decomposed body in the back seat. It was that of a missing man, and his family want to know how officers could ticket the vehicle and and not notice what was inside. (Source: CBS news)

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What was the biggest-selling car in America last year? The Little Tikes Cozy Coupe, a foot-powered plastic toy introduced in 1979, according to BostonGlobe.com.

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Flatmates from hell #1:

While they watched COPS on TV, half-joking-guy asked his flatmate if he'd ever been arrested. The flatmate replied, "Yeah. I blew up a nightclub in Queen St with a Molotov cocktail, and had the whole force hunting me down, spent a few years in prison, cops are pig scum." Half-joking-guy went kinda quiet and moved out shortly after.

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Flatmates from hell #2:

"I had a flatmate who would insist that because it was his TV, he would decide the channel. After a few conversations in which he would argue he would gain his knighthood for services to the poor for providing accommodation to them at market rates, a TV went in the spare lounge and we left him to his."

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Flatmates from hell #3:

"Had one flatmate who liked to take baths, usually about 8 to 9pm. One night, he ran the bath as we were all going to bed, about 9.30. About 3am, I heard the hot water running. I thought it was another flattie using it in the kitchen. In the morning (about 7am) I realised that this guy had got in the bath and fallen asleep. When the water got cold, instead of getting out, he topped it up. He slept in there till the morning."

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View today's Herald cartoon

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