Sideswipe: Fashionably thin

Photo / Supplied

Diet Pepsi has introduced a new "skinny" can for New York Fashion Week. The company says the taller and slimmer can was made in "celebration of beautiful, confident women". Brand experts say the company may be a bit off on its sales pitch that skinny is better. A Pepsi spokesperson says: "We are sensitive to this interpretation, and that is definitely not our intent ..."

Revenge would be so sweet

Margie and two friends were dining at an Auckland restaurant when suddenly they felt a terrible spattering sensation ... "We were covered in bird s***!" she says. "We reached for napkins and mopped the top of our heads, and the napkins turned yellowy-green. Quite keen to get home and wash, we paid our bill, commenting to the young woman behind the counter about the encounter. She was patently uninterested, and when we regrouped and decided we required the satisfaction of a sympathetic and engaged response we went back in and asked to see the manager. "Oh, that'll be about the seagulls," the young woman called out in a mocking tone, as the staff present kind of sniggered. Well, out came this blustering young guy ... We weren't asking for anything, we simply pointed out that unlike all the other tables, our table had no umbrella and that perhaps they should remedy that. Sweating and plum-coloured, he went on the attack, saying it would cost $40,000 to re-roof his patio ... He was laughing at us and suggesting that we were ridiculous to even mention this trivial matter ... If I'm reincarnated as a seagull; I'm going to go and hang around this particular area and aim my bottom fair and square at the restaurant staff there. But that's the only manner in which I will be returning."

Keep on partying

Katie Hemmingsen writes: "My 5-year-old daughter who, last week, has been watching the news with me most nights, asked yesterday: 'Mummy, are they going to have a Maori party every day?"'

Charges keep adding up

"How long can Air New Zealand get away with its deceptive pricing tactics?" asks Mike. "Bought tickets for trip to Australia - tickets cost $360 each, $1080 in total. But then they added on another $402 in 'surcharges' - taxes, levies and 'fuel costs'. What other industry could get away with adding 40 per cent to their headline price? Any other transport service has to pay taxes and fuel bills, but they aren't allowed to offer a price, and then add on extras later."