Sideswipe: Ignore this headline

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Sign spotted in Alaska.

Best of a bad lot

The city of Reykjavik, Iceland, held an election, and the Best Party won. In a multi-party election, the Best Party took 34.7 per cent of the vote, more than any other. That means the party founder, comedian Jon Gnarr, is now mayor. Gnarr formed the party to satirise the political system. In his campaign, he promised a polar bear for the zoo and a drug-free Parliament (by 2020). He now leads a city of 120,000 people. In his acceptance speech he tried to calm the fears of the other 65.3 per cent. "No one has to be afraid of the Best Party," he said, "because it is the best party. If it wasn't, it would be called the Worst Party or the Bad Party. We would never work with a party like that." With his party having won six of the city council's 15 seats, Mr Gnarr needed a coalition partner, but ruled out any party whose members had not seen all five seasons of television series The Wire.

Healthy eating disorder

Fixation with healthy eating can be sign of serious psychological disorder. The condition known as orthorexia nervosa affects equal numbers of men and women, but sufferers tend to be aged over 30, middle-class and well-educated - those who read about food scares in the papers, research them on the internet, and have the time and money to source what they believe to be purer alternatives. The condition is described as a "fixation on righteous eating". Orthorexics commonly refuse certain foods, like sugar, salt, caffeine, alcohol, wheat, gluten, yeast, soya, corn and dairy foods. But also refuse any foods that have come into contact with pesticides, herbicides or contain artificial additives.The obsession about which foods are "good" and which are "bad" means orthorexics can end up malnourished. (Source: Guardian.co.uk)

Lighting the way

Alan Murgatroyd was on beautiful Narrow Neck beach on Thursday: "Being July 1 (the start of higher electricity costs due to ETS) I was surprised to see all the street lights on at noon," he says.

Ambulance in the way

While in West Auckland the other week a reader was at the WestCity shopping centre, waiting for a friend, when an ambulance pulled into the carpark. "The crew got out, went into the mall and soon after came out and put into the ambulance an elderly gentleman who looked a little bloodied but otherwise okay. They had patched up the elderly man and sent him back into the mall when one of the ambulance officers was accosted by a woman who said the ambulance was blocking her car. The ambulance driver responded politely explaining that they were dealing with a patient but the selfish women snapped back: 'I don't care!' I would suggest that maybe this is what is wrong with our society these days."

Beautiful but invisible

Jennifer Sims writes: "I am sure most of us at some time have been accosted by the somewhat annoying salespeople at the top of escalators trying to get us to sample their wares. Today one of them told me I had beautiful nails and would I like to try their special nail cream? Do they have x-ray vision? My hands were in my pockets!"