Sideswipe

The signs outside this New Lynn restaurant have bugged Roger McGarry for the past five years. "They have got a bob three ways as to the correct spelling of restaurant. One side of an illuminated sign is resturant, the reverse is restarant, yet the one on the front manages to spell it correctly."

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A judge in Edmonton, Alberta, ordered Shee Theng to serve a nine-month community sentence for partially scalping his then-girlfriend by attempting to style her hair with a power drill, a technique he said he learned about on a TV infomercial. Theng admitted that he knew it was a bad idea because he had previously screwed up his own hair trying it out. (Source: News of the Weird)

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CNN'S Larry King contributes instructions on how to listen, for a book The Experts' Guide to 100 Things Everyone Should Know How To Do.

* The key is to focus. The truest thing I've ever heard in my life is: "I never learned anything when I was talking."

* If you don't understand what you are listening to, simply say: "I don't understand. Can you explain it to me further?" There is nothing wrong with not knowing. It is wrong, however, not to admit that you don't know.

* Sometimes it is hard to get someone to talk, but keep working at it. Here's a good case in point. I was interviewing an award-winning fighter pilot who had shot down 11 enemy planes during World War II. I had one hour with him. My first question was why he enlisted in the Air Corps. His answer was, "I liked it." I could immediately tell that not only was this fellow nervous, but I would struggle to get him to speak for an hour. He was shaking so much that I switched gears and asked him about fear. Within 10 minutes, he was saying things like: "We dove through the clouds ... I could see the whites of their eyes." In other words, I had moved him into his territory and expression came out. So the tip here is to look for the person's comfort zone.

* A conversation requires two people. Listen to what the other person is saying.

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Pauline Gee writes about yesterday's "three-hour barking" sign for dogs. "I was also in Brisbane two weeks ago and was staying with a friend in an apartment right next to the Powerhouse. The sign in question is on the fence of a dog park (one of several , I understand, in Brisbane). The park is fully fenced and you are free to let your dog off the lead there. It's big enough for a large dog to have a good run after a ball and for a small dog to get plenty of exercise walking the perimeter."

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Found: A very talkative cockatiel on Saturday afternoon in Torbay. I have tried all the local pet shops, notices in windows etc but to no avail, but someone, somewhere, must be heart-broken to lose such a chatty friend. Please phone Sally on 021- 144-1774 for more information.