Sideswipe: February 28: Coolest announcement

Coolest way to announce a pregnancy.

Brokers appeal to nature lovers

Stu noticed an email footer from a local insurance brokerage and wasn't sure if the vain attempt to somehow connect a commercial activity to the environment should be treated with laughter or sadness. It reads: "New Zealand Natural Cover - Natural cover is the role of both the plumage in the survival of rare native bird species and our advice as insurance brokers in the financial survival of our clients."

Cartoon controversies

1. "SpongeBob is talking a lot about global warming, and he's only looking at it from one point of view," bemoaned a Fox & Friends host of a special episode of SpongeBob Squarepants called 'Endless Summer', which was screened during an event run by the US Department of Education in 2011. The offending clip depicts SpongeBob and Mister Krabs deliberately raising regional temperatures by pumping carbon dioxide into the atmosphere to create demand for their swimming pool.

2. Several parents complained when, in a 1998 episode of The Angry Beavers, series protagonist Norbert yelled, "Oh shut up, Dag!" How did the network respond? By bleeping out the word "shut". The situation immediately went from bad to worse, as many viewers now assumed that the yellow rodent was swearing. It was changed to, "Shush up, stupid!"

(Source: mentalfloss.com)

Merry chase over chair

Police in Australia were led on a high-speed chase through Adelaide because of a stolen second-hand floral armchair. Patrols spotted the chair in the boot of a Mitsubishi sedan about 2.40am on Tuesday and tried to pull over the driver, but she sped off. The chair fell out and the driver dumped the vehicle and fled on foot. The chair had been donated to the Salvation Army, which said thefts like that occurred almost every night.

A phrase to remember

A reader writes: "Your Newmarket correspondent's colleague might have a chance of differentiating between the two words [effluent and affluent] if she uses this wonderful phrase which we heard from our UK friends when asking how they were faring in the floods. They expected some action from the Government once 'the effluent hit the affluent'."

The day they ran out of ideas for naming products.

( Via Shelley Howells @Shellface on Twitter)