Sideswipe: The skeletal bicycle

Artist Eric Tryon made himself a skeletal bicycle. It's fully functional and the arms and head move whenever you make a turn. (Source: Geekologie)

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How can Newstalk ZB allow CSL Containers to broadcast an advertisement inviting customers to "lend" a container?" asks a reader. "Surely the bloke who wrote it, the bloke who is saying it and the bloke who produced it or the radio station would recognise this dreadful misuse of the language? This advert is broadcast regularly and twice the advertiser invites people to 'lend' his containers."

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Polish feminists have objected to a hospital's breast cancer prevention slogan, which they say encourages workplace harassment. The slogan, "I check the breasts of my workers on my own", was devised by staff at a cancer hospital and to encourage female workers to have regular check-ups.

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A reader writes: "To the guy in the beat-up Land Rover, who had obviously run out of petrol around 3.30pm on Tuesday on Swanson Rd: Do you really think it was a good idea to be pouring petrol into your tank with a lit cigarette hanging from your lips?"

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New words and phrases -

Beer thirty: Synonym of the popular phrase "wine o'clock". A time of day when a beer becomes necessary.
To recrap: To sum up a discussion composed largely of meaningless information.
Verbal handcuffs: When someone won't stop talking (usually about a subject you have no interest in). The talker has verbally forced you to listen, even though you have given many clues you have checked out - such as vacant stares and looking at your watch - making you feel like you are in verbal handcuffs. (Source: Urban dictionary.com)

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Graeme says the simplest way to stop your dog pillaging the fruit trees is to spray lemon juice and pepper on the fruit. "Not a lot though. It doesn't take much. Dogs don't like either so one whiff and they'll leave them alone. Just remember to wash it off before you bite into them."

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A reader asked how many trees are cut down to produce the yellow and white pages he doesn't use. The answer is ... none, proclaims this guy: "All the newsprint used in these publications - and, in fact, most newsprint consumed in New Zealand - is made from waste products from the forestry industry, either wood chip from sawmills or the tops of harvested pines that are too thin and too tapered to be exported. These would otherwise be left to rot in the forests."

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See today's Herald cartoon