KEY POINTS:
Buy the cat and the house comes free. Source: Herald classifieds
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Catholics with questions can find the answers online. This from the forums at the Catholic Answers website: Q. Does biting my fingernails break the eucharistic fast? Sometimes I bite my fingernails during Mass, due either to hunger or just some hangnails I feel the need to get rid of. I'm pretty sure I'm not breaking the fast (I'm not eating them for sustenance, that's for sure) but figured I'd make sure. A. Biting fingernails does not break the eucharistic fast because fingernails are not food. However, biting one's nails at Mass is not proper church etiquette. Hunger and personal grooming should be taken care of outside of Mass. If you cannot entirely break yourself of this habit, I recommend that you at least try to refrain from doing it during Mass.
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The strangest insurance claim in Britain: A claimant to Norwich Union, Britain's biggest insurer, said: "I was taking my hamster to the vet only to realise that when I arrived there, it had chewed through my handbag and escaped." Another claimant wrote: "I parked in a country lane beside a hedge and when I returned to the vehicle, two horses had chewed my car." Animals feature prominently on Norwich Union's annual list of quirky claims. In 2005 a motorist said windscreen damage had been caused by a frozen squirrel falling from a tree.Source: Reuters
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Jan Coyle, born in Mission Bay's former pink house in 1938, says she was told by her mother the house was pink at that time. Peter Thorpy of Auckland says the house was painted pink only in 1969. He writes: "My parents bought the house in 1953 and owned it for the next 50 years. When bought, it was white with contrasting black highlight bands around the upper part and around the front steps leading to the footpath on Tamaki Drive. On visits to Europe, they enjoyed the sight of the colourful houses, and pink ones especially, of the southern European and Mediterranean countries, and in 1969 they painted the Mission Bay house pink. Before then it was always white."
Sideswipe now includes a link to a humorous, satirical or simply strange video clip selected from the infinite mount of nothingness hosted on YouTube and the like. The very best online videos will be carefully chosen and hosted on Ana's online magazine Spare Room and shared with Sideswipe readers every day.
Today's Video Webpick: There'll be no winning hearts and minds of the Iraqi people with this kind of driving, although some have suggested the soldiers have to keep their foot down because of the constant threat of attack. What do you think? Watch it here.