Sideswipe: July 25: Per week? Really?

Photo / Supplied

"I had heard that because of the Japanese earthquake, the price of imported secondhand cars was going to rise," writes Paul, "but this is taking things too far!" (Spotted at Autometrix in Henderson)

Customer not always right

A Californian petrol-station worker told Not Always Right, a website for when customers behave unreasonably: "I'm ringing up customers when I suddenly have a severe allergic reaction to something I ate on my break 20 minutes ago. By severe reaction, I mean my entire body is quickly becoming covered in hives in the span of about 30 seconds." Customer: "Hey, can you hurry up? I'm kind of in a hurry." Me: "Sorry, I think I'm gonna have to get someone else to finish helping you." Customer: "No! I'm late and I need you to finish ringing me up right now!" Me: "Uhh ..." *passes out* (As I am coming to, I can hear the customer still yelling.) Customer: "No, you can't help me! I know he's faking it and I'm not leaving until he rings me up!"

Change of diet in Russia

Strange but true: Beer is now classified as alcohol in Russia. Until now anything with less than 10 per cent alcohol in Russia has been considered a foodstuff. The move will enable the Government to control the sale of beer the way spirits are controlled. According to the bbc.co.uk it is common to see people swigging beer in public as if they are drinking soft drinks.

Switched-on networking

Mark writes: "Florence's Jetstar flight from Wellington to Auckland was running an hour late. Dad was already waiting at the airport, but Florence didn't know his mobile number. A quick post on Facebook and minutes later Dad gets a call from Elizabeth in Switzerland with the latest travel advisory."

Cereal complainer burned

"My aunt had a friend who was a serial complainer. She used to fire letters of complaint to all manner of unsuspecting companies regarding their shoddy wares. The usual response was a fistful of vouchers or a cheque from the unsuspecting company to calm the rabid cow's fevered brow. One day, Kellogg's appeared on her radar because they'd committed the heinous crime of palming a large box of cornflakes off on the unsuspecting masses (in this case her) with a burned cornflake in it. The sternly worded letter of complaint was duly dispatched post haste to those fine people at Kellogg's. She really went to town on them over how outrageous it was that such a fine upstanding company should be peddling this substandard filth on the general public and what were they going to do about compensating her for this impurity in her breakfast cereal? Their response? A 'With compliments' slip with a single replacement cornflake taped to the top right-hand corner ..." (Source: B3ta.com)