KEY POINTS:
A reader would like to offer this word of warning to Sideswipe readers: Don't iron your Lotto tickets. She writes: "My husband has a habit of buying Lotto tickets and storing them away in glove box, drawer or pocket, and never checking them. This weekend I hunted around and collected 13 unchecked tickets to present to the Lotto outlet. In the past I have noticed that the Lotto person sometimes has difficulty inserting bent and creased tickets so to make the job easier I decided to iron the tickets. I piled all 13 tickets together and placed one of his hankies over the top then ran the iron across them. Imagine my horror, after peeling back the hankie, to find that the top five tickets were completely black and the numbers obliterated. I have omitted to mention the ironing and told him only that none of the tickets won a prize."
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Public libraries in one Florida county are struggling to get books checked out or put back on shelves because retirees who usually handle many of those chores have balked at a requirement that they pee in a cup as part of a mandatory drug test for all Levy county volunteers. "It's not like we are a high-risk group for coming in drunk or high or stoned or whatever," said one volunteer. "Why are we spending tax money to test 75-year-old grandmothers for marijuana? We should be using that money to buy more books and computers." Volunteer hours in the county's five libraries plunged from 330 in September last year to 11 this September. (Source: Gainsville.com)
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They're our eyes and ears, navigating their way through a fog of bureaucratic reports, agendas and minutes that would induce shut-eye for most of us within minutes. Bless the Botany Community Board member, then, who lost track of the zeros when considering a Transit New Zealand submission on its proposed Auckland motorway toll system. How long, she asked with only a slight air of indignation, would the travelling public be expected to pay tolls? Thirty- five years, came the response, to which our trusty interrogator blurted: "What, 35 years for a project costing only $800,000?" Somewhere, in that pile of reports she'd misplaced three zeros. The real cost, she learned to her embarrassment - $800,000,000.
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A North Shore family laughed while watching TVNZ's coverage of the dedication ceremony for unveiling the 16 bronze statues in London's Hyde Park when our Prime Minister and her "partner" stepped out of their stately car to have the voiceover introduce to the world, "Professor Peter Clark ... and Helen Clark."
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An Englishman has fixed his front tooth with superglue after failing to find a dentist he could afford. Gordon Cook, 55, has used the DIY technique on a loose crown for the past three years, with each fresh application of glue lasting around two months. The father of seven, who was erased from his original dentist's National Health Service register after moving to a new home, said he turned to glue after losing hope of finding a dentist he could afford.
