Sideswipe: November 21: Two in one

Two businesses in one? Spotted in Hastings.

Mantra for today's world

Modern Day Mantra (Some serious, some not so):

"Life is too short to do instant coffee or blended whisky."

"When you're skating on thin ice you might as well tap dance."

"He who laughs last missed the punchline."

"The cure for everything is salt water ... sweat, tears or the sea."(Isak Dinesen)
"You never know what worse luck your bad luck has saved you from." (Cormac McCarthy, No Country for Old Men.)
"I live like I type: fast, but with a lot of mistakes."
"You can always stoop and pick up nothing."
"Remember to keep your words soft and sweet, one day you might have to eat them."
"You can't polish a turd but you can roll it in glitter!"
"Walk a mile in my jandals. Then you not only have my jandals, but you are a mile away from me. The strange rash will heal in six months."

Weirder words

This week Oxford Dictionaries declared "selfie" the word of the year for 2013 and wrote in a news release: "Its linguistic productivity is already evident in the creation of numerous related spin-off terms showcasing particular parts of the body like helfie (a picture of one's hair) and belfie (a picture of one's posterior); a particular activity - welfie (workout selfie) and drelfie (drunken selfie), and even items of furniture - shelfie and bookshelfie."

Nature ain't pretty

For those getting squeamish about the picture in yesterday's Sideswipe of the mouse heading down the chicken's gullet, Trisha writes: "My mother has a pet duck, the cat caught a sparrow - Duck stole the sparrow and proceeded to dismember and eat it, next day the cat takes its prey into house to prevent further thefts. Nature is not pretty."

Fred the handyman cat

Nature can also redress the balance, writes another reader. "I was privileged to know a cat that was adopted by a community of wild birds. I threw out leftover bird seed from my pet birds for their wild cousins. They and the cat would share the bounty together. The cat ate bird seed surrounded by sparrows, finches and blackbirds. Not once did she touch them. One spring, she took to collecting baby birds that had fallen out of their nests but were still living. Eat them? No. She brought the live birds gently carried in her mouth to us. We cared for these young and returned them to their parents. We had to rehome Fred the cat when we were forced to move. My last report from her new owners was that she was helping them carry firewood into the house."

Picture this: For couples who like to bathe together, but separate...

Social Media: 1) British Conservative Party politician Iain Duncan Smith tweets this deeply cynical (but bang on) sentiment...

2) If you need a smile, this should do it...

Video: In 1981 the idea of credit was all new but this ad for Visa, which coincided with the relaxation of laws around weekend trading, sold the idea to a generation with a catchy jingle...

Video: Raunchy British dance outfit Hot Gossip, from the Kenny Everett Video Show are so 80s it hurts...

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