Sideswipe: Cooking dogs and interesting people

Job-hunters risked missing out on vacancies through poor spelling, grammar or presentation on their CVs, says a study by Personal Career Management in the UK. In some cases, attempts to impress potential employers failed through the odd misused word, such as: "I was responsible for dissatisfied customers." For others, the omission of a single letter consigned their CV to the bin: "I am a pubic relations officer." And sparing use of the comma led to seemingly embarrassing disclosures of equal note: "My interests include cooking dogs and interesting people." The study said only 6 per cent of the 450 CVs were error-free. (Source: Telegraph)

* * *

Sorting through the junk mail, Rod discovered a flyer for the recently rebranded One Tree Hill College. "A proud former student and prefect of the then Penrose High School, I was disheartened to discover that the confident and committed student they have pictured seems to have his shirt untucked. Back in my day (eight years ago) that would never have been allowed. The long-serving and committed DP, Mr B, would have spotted you from a mile away ... I ask principal Iva Ropati (who has done a great job with my old school, by the way) if he intends to allow all the students to have their shirts untucked."

* * *

Peter Emerson of Tokoroa found the washing instructions on his new bathmat rather quaint: "Please lave with the water in the temperature under 30 degrees. A little fibre will fall in the beginning of washing. Twitter gently to make it loose after dehydrating. Air outdoors and avoid the direct irradation of the sunshine. Cannot drying, never iron."

* * *

An Italian judge cleared a courtroom when he told lawyers: "I've just got back from Mexico." More than 30 attorneys in Rome told Judge Giovanni Barese they were boycotting the court because of fear of swine flu. One lawyer said: "The judge coughed a few times ... and then said he had just come back from Mexico. I've never seen so many lawyers agree on anything in court so quickly but we all decided we had to get as far away from him as possible." (Source: Ananova.com)

* * *

The bloke who moaned about Fly Buys is wrong. "All Fly Buy points are good for three years from time of purchase and when the first points are due to expire they let you know in plenty of time," says a satisfied customer.

* * *

As in so many things, it is all about the way you use it, a reader says. "We have our credit card linked to our Fly Buys card and have accumulated numerous rewards including flights, accommodation, household goods and electrical appliances worth many hundreds of dollars."

* * *

View today's Herald cartoon

* * *