Sideswipe: Glad she didn't buy a keg

A Bournemouth mother shopping with her 14-year-old son was told she couldn't give him a heavy shopping bag to carry - because it contained a bottle of wine. Gill Power-Forward had just finished at the check-out at the Canford Heath Asda store and was handing the heavier of the two bags to her strapping teenage son Andrew to take to the car. But she was stunned to be told by the cashier that she must carry the bag herself because it had the bottle of wine in it and her son might drink it. She said she thought it was a joke - but the cashier said that was policy. (Source: Bournemouthecho.co.uk)

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John Martins writes: "The article about alleged parking-fine favouritism in Paihia reminds me of an experiment carried out by UKTV in the 60s after a viewer had contacted their Fair Go-style programme with the observation that everyday cars parked in central London always collected plenty of parking tickets but it was rare to see a Rolls-Royce ticketed. The programme took a Ford Anglia and a Rolls and parked them in identical places at the same time of day. The Anglia collected 27 tickets and the Roller three, from memory. It was, of course, a more deferential age then and it would be interesting to repeat the experiment today to see how much times have changed."

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A reader writes: "How do the Paihia traffic wardens know which are local cars? I live locally and would like to know what I have to do - it will be very useful. Or is it just a case of who you know, not what you know?"

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Camilla declares: "What a load of rubbish about police responding to crimes quicker when they might catch the offender in the act. My neighbour called the police when she spotted a burglar robbing our house - she was alerted by the alarm blaring and could clearly see him through the window. He managed to make two trips hours apart on foot carrying our goods up the road and around the corner into another property. My neighbour even filmed him doing all this. Police response? Nil."

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Shoutout to the lovers: "To the driver of the silver Mitsubishi, whose number plate I have, could you please wait until after 6pm to have sex in your car at Walter Strevens Reserve (in Conifer Grove, South Auckland). This park is used by children and families and even though your car has tinted windows you can still see inside ..."

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View today's Herald cartoon

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Today's Webpick: 100% Retro New Zealand, this 70s government tourism campaign promoted the groovy nightlife and scenic bus tours. Fantastic clip! Go here and scroll down.

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