Sideswipe: Old MacDonald had a gatecrasher

Nice photobomb - that'll teach you to get married on a farm. (Via Nothing to do with Arbroath)

Where laziness meets cruelty

Today in inhumanity: A 39-year-old woman was charged with animal cruelty after she tried to air-mail a dog to Atlanta from Minneapolis, authorities said. The postal worker was stunned when the package moved by itself and fell to the floor. She unwrapped the tightly sealed box and rescued a 4-month-old puppy ... The outside of the package read: "This is for your 11th birthday. It's what you wanted." The woman told the post office clerk that if sounds came from the package not to worry - it just contained a toy robot.

Chipping away at their credibility

Sideswipe readers have rightly moaned about the amount of air in packets of chips; here's an explanation of how things work in the US: The practice of only half-filling containers with actual food is called "slack fill". According to Cracked.com chip-makers are experts at doing this. "They want a cushion of air around their products as protection, because nothing sucks more than getting a bag full of smooshed chip bits ... even though the FDA allows for some air space as food protection, sneaky manufacturers have been more than willing to abuse the system. (Source: Cracked.com)

Signs of madness in the council

Driving down Te Irirangi Drive in Botany, Eric West noticed that there are at least a dozen signs prohibiting traffic under 3500kg during non-business hours. "So, sorry people, after you close your shop, you commit an offence by trying to drive home in your private car! You can't, according to the sign, drive a vehicle on that road unless it is a truck. Plainly it should read 'over 3500kg' (trucks) so, since all the signs are the same, someone in the council has made a glorious stuff-up."

I need a holiday ... from stupidity

Jake used to work in tourism on Grand Cayman in the Caribbean and has been asked some very dumb questions - What are those lumps on the water? (Um, waves). How deep do you have to go to dive under the island? (Um, quite deep) - but most amusing was when he asked an elderly couple if they were enjoying their holiday. "It's lovely," they said. "But we thought we had booked to go to the Grand Canyon."

A little late lip service

Yesterday's picture of the luscious lips mailbox should have credited the picture to Paul Hafner's blog Auckland-West.co.nz and mentioned that Iain Cathcart made it and while it is on Huia Rd, it is actually in Laingholm.