Sideswipe: Read between the lines

Sign found in Mt Roskill, Auckland.

Hot under the collar

A reader writes: "Management had a fold-out ironing board installed in our locker room at work. Good idea. Only problem is they will not let us use an iron due to fire safety issues."

Like father like son

Ben Quayle, son of the gaffe-prone former vice- President Dan Quayle (who famously told a student to add an "e" at the end of the word potato) is making a few wrong calls of his own in his campaign for Congress. A campaign mailer shows his wife and two young girls, with the words, "We are going to raise our family here." He and his wife have no children; the girls were his nieces.

Insurance stings all walks of life

A great deal of feedback for Sue from Howick who complained that her insurance company was sexist, including this young fella: "Try being a male under the age of 25 and getting insurance," he says. "Surely increasing the premium based on age is discrimination. Like it or not, insurance is a business of risk, and if the stats say you are more likely to crash, more likely to cost them money, they will charge you more." Another reader says it's legal for insurers to discriminate. "The Human Rights Act allows discrimination by providers of insurance services on any of the otherwise-prohibited grounds."

Equality comes at a cost

"NZI have finally wised up that women have more crashes over distance while men have more crashes over time," says Matt. "Men have traditionally been 'the driver' on family trips away, in addition to being truckies, travelling salespeople, and various other roles that have them on the road for long distances. This exposes them to a greater risk of crashing, but per kilometre-driven women have more crashes than men. NZI have seen the outcome of women doing more driving, and adjusted their insurance rates accordingly. It's a clear sign of increasing equality that women are now driving enough for their poor driving to show up to insurance companies. Harsh, but true."

Bog-standard eco bulb blows up

Paula says the energy saver light bulb in the toilet blew up with a bang and showered small bits of glass all over the person sitting on the throne. "Back to the good old-fashioned bulbs for us now," she says.

Today's Webpick: You called your band what? Plus, Pascalle's car for sale on Trade Me, oil company brags that it melts glaciers and scroll down to see a deer running off with some bloke's wife.

Go here.



The new Sideswipe book True Life Laughs ($19.99) is out now. Buy it at all good bookstores or right here, right now at Fishpond.co.nz.



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