Sideswipe: 9 Oct: 'Tefal for...flatting'

Some people will try and sell anything on Trade Me. The description reads: "Tefal, very used. May be useful for flatting or camping." Photo / Supplied

Winging it ... with some help

Having trouble picking up women? Tired of going home alone after a long night of giving the glad eye? A Boston firm has a solution - hiring out females to act as "wingwomen" for $72 an hour. Hire A Boston WingWoman provides someone to go out to the bars with men to help them pick up other women. Because if there's one thing we all know to be true, it's that the best relationships are built on a foundation of lies. (Source: Cracked.com)

Bound to dampen spirits

A Warkworth reader writes: "I know I might have been looking a bit windswept and it had been a long day at the Kowhai festival, but when I inquired to the helpful New World shop assistant as to whether they had methylated spirits for sale. Her innocent reply of 'sorry we only have wine or beer' caused an immediate retreat to the safety of home."

Guest's brush with the law

A guest who fled without paying his bill has been tracked down using DNA found on the toothbrush he left behind. Stephen Evans, checked into a £32 ($62)-a-night guesthouse in his hometown of Llandudno, Wales under a false name and address in June, claiming to be "Paul Jones of Chester". He told the receptionist he would be staying for three nights, but left after two days without paying for his stay, the Daily Mail reports. Police noticed the toothbrush in his room when they were called to investigate. They had it forensically tested and discovered a DNA match on the police database. (Source: Digital Spy)

Aye, blame L&P's Facebook followers

The ad folk at Saatchi's who came up with the new L&P line 'Bit Different Aye' were criticised yesterday for their spelling of the word. But they say they spent a long time trying to decide between 'aye', 'ay', and 'eh'. They put the question to their 190,000 strong L&P Facebook community and 3132 (out of 4084) people came back with 'aye'.

Rites of long appeal

Max Cryer writes: "The young man being a 'human scarecrow' in Wales is following an ancient British practice. The expression "stone the crows" derives from exactly that: generations of British children stationed in crop fields to scare away hungry birds. British MP Sir George Edwards, called his autobiography From Crow Scaring to Westminster and told of his childhood, when like many children in rural districts he was sent out to the fields to throw stones and scare the crows away from crops. He explained that this was once common practice in country areas, and the children were paid sixpence a day for crow scaring."