Sideswipe: Feb 25: Image change

Milford has an unintentional change of image. Photo / Supplied

Bedtime emergency

Police in Massachusetts say a 10-year-old boy called 911 because he didn't want to go to bed. Brockton police say the boy called just after 8pm and told the dispatcher he was calling to report his mother because he did not want to go to bed. There was no emergency. According to the police log, an officer went to the boy's home and explained to him when it was appropriate to call 911. (Source: NYDaily News)

Strange but true

1. Clara Cowell has given in to her family and agreed to stop smoking. The 102-year-old British great-great-grandmother conceded that after puffing on some 60,000 cigarettes, falling ash has become a risk to her health.

2. Marquis Jay was sitting at his desk at Boles Junior High School in Texas and had his head tilted back and his mouth open. That's when a teacher walked by and dumped pencil shavings into his mouth. Jay's mother says the school suspended the teacher but she wants her fired.

3. The following words have been added to the Oxford Dictionary: "tweetable" (suitable for posting on the social media site Twitter); "dumbphone" (a basic mobile phone that lacks the advanced functionality characteristic of a smartphone); and "friend zone" (a situation in which a platonic relationship exists between two people, one of whom has an undeclared romantic or sexual interest in the other).

Clever cards

"Great to hear of the Happy Families playing cards," writes Dorothy. "I looked at my set just the other day and decided I couldn't throw them out. When my son Matthew was a youngster he could recite each of the sayings on every card from memory - we had such fun testing him. He is now a senior manager at Deloitte in London but next time he comes home I must test him!"

Firefighters make a boy happy

Adrian wants to say thanks to a few of the guys at the Ponsonby Fire Station. "I'm part of the Big Brother programme and my little brother Carlo and I were out for a walk along Ponsonby Rd when he saw some firefighters sitting in the fire truck. We stood there for a minute in case the fire truck was about to race off and the men on duty were nice enough to roll up the door and invite Carlo in to sit in the fire truck and tell us a bit about the station. Carlo was really stoked with it and even got a little goodie bag which he was excited to take home and rip into. It was an extremely nice thing to do."

Meme: I love the idea of this because it goes to the heart of all those 'celeb-without-make-up' pictorials the lady rags peddle ... Here pretty girls make ugly faces and post them online for all to see (to do this shows great character)

UPDATE: Campbell Live did a nice follow up on the Whakatane "Truck Off" sign in Sideswipe last week...

Shoebox living: You think the Merchant Quarter 47sqm apartments are small, check out these Hong Kong living spaces that are only 3.7 sq m...

Video: Law and Order SVU has made an episode which is a fictional realization of the Chris Brown-Rihanna domestic abuse case...

* Got a Sideswipe? Send your pictures, links and anecdotes to Ana at ana.samways@nzherald.co.nz