Sideswipe: Any happy returns?

A woman gives her uncaring friends the benefit of the doubt.

Does your child have ADHD? Good news: now you can skip the line at the amusement park in the United Kingdom, thanks to new anti-discrimination laws. Children with attention-deficit disorders, a recognised psychiatric condition, can now queue- jump at theme parks because they cannot cope with the stress of waiting. Passes are given to those who can prove they have the condition, but teachers have criticised the scheme, saying it undermines their efforts to encourage patience. (Source: Times Online)

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Have you noticed how often the makers of ads seem to have no real grasp of the real world out there? For instance, Copper Kettle Chips are touted in new ads as being made in New Zealand, but the ad shows a mole burrowing under potatoes, squirrels in the trees and, to top it off, a hornets' nest hanging in a tree, which supposedly is where the honey comes from. The fact that these people think honey bees make nests that hang in trees, and that we have moles and squirrels here, shows their detachment from the outside world. I think they should go outside once in a while and have a look around. (For the record, honey bees in the wild will build nests in hollows and crevices, but they just don't make hanging nests like that depicted in the advertisement.)

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Deen Wimbrow, 16, has something to say about trying to make the Demon Energy drink saga (in which NZ soldiers wrote "Dear Taleban, enjoy this" on a bomb) into our own Abu Ghraib: "The bomb was meant to be sent to destroy an Afghanistan training camp, but it's not the death and destruction of the bomb that matters, it's the mean thing written on it that matters. The soldiers were only trying to have a small joke during the depressing war and instead they are ridiculed because of it and almost sent home. Society does not like that the soldiers might have hurt the Taleban's feelings, but it is right to kill them?"

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A Mt Albert reader reckons Newmans and Intercity Coachlines deserve a huge pat on the back for extraordinary service last week. He writes: "My daughter catches the same bus home from boarding school in Hamilton every Friday afternoon. Last Friday, however, she caught a later one. But the driver of her regular Newmans bus noticed her missing and got Intercity in Auckland to ring us to make sure she was okay. I was almost in tears, so grateful that they cared. I thought that sort of service had long gone from the New Zealand business scene. I am so thrilled that I was wrong."

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Want Want Plaza is not a bad translation, says a reader. "Want Want is actually a well-known Taiwanese brand of snack foods, mostly crackers. You can find their products in most Chinese supermarkets here."

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A reader writes: "All you sanctimonious tell-tales bleating about Rodney Hide using his cellphone while driving need to get over yourselves. It's still legal, and until it isn't, Mr Hide is as entitled as the rest of us to use his phone as he sees fit."

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View today's Herald cartoon

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