Sideswipe: Mouse End Steak

Beauty can be a double-edged sword.

Meaty treat for a tiny appetite.

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Customer service: Simon was about to buy on impulse a product from a local online retailer, but common sense kicked in as his mouse was hovering over the "Submit" button. "Do I really need that oversized bean bag without beans? No. So I closed the window. But I instantly got an email saying thanks for my purchase - very strange seeing I didn't hit 'submit'. This was the response I got from one of their reps: 'So, are you saying that you entered in all your shipping and credit card details because you didn't want the item? In that case, it may have been best not to add it to your basket in the first place.' They then said: 'Unfortunately when an order is processed through to us we cannot make any changes or cancellations ...' Eventually customer service reigned supreme and they cancelled my order, but a very interesting ordeal."

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A reader writes: "I am horrified at the parking warden issuing tickets to cars outside a funeral procession in Henderson. Where is the sensitivity? They are grieving and the overdue meter or timed parking spot has slipped their minds."

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Daniel wonders if the new anti-boy racer laws on "cruising" apply to politicians during election campaigns. "Cars cruising up and down Queen St and Newmarket all day and night with loud hailers blaring? Rodney Hide's smart car would double Auckland's ticket revenue overnight if this law was extended to visual pollution."

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A classic comment from 4-year-old Fox Gill. "Fox was inquiring about death (again). She did not want me (her mum) to die. She also worried about her dad and I said, "He is in your heart when he isn't here, right?" Then I asked her: "If I was not physically beside you, where am I? Somewhere I am always?" Fox looked up at me and said: "In the kitchen?"

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Michael Lloyd Eno writes: "Where is the hue and cry over what is effectively the emasculation of red-blooded heterosexual man, to wit, the excruciating Tower advert where a pathetic excuse for the male species tries to seek the approbation of his self-centred free spending/hedonistic wife - God help us all." (The stereotypical shopoholic wife is equally as hideous, don't you think? - Sideswipe)

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See today's Herald cartoon

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Today's Webpick: Always Blow On The Pie gets the South Park treatment. Go here.

Follow Ana Samways on Twitter here.