Sideswipe October 1: Leggings for the lonely

Big bird in a bird bath. Photo / Kathy Neilson.

Sounds like pants

The marketing machine goes into overdrive, with a popular clothing line offering emotionally supportive brands. Lululemon's new Hugged Sensation line will heal you from the inside out with their elite activewear. Their Sensation Innovation collection offers a bunch of different fits including "hugged" but you can also choose from "tight" and "held-in", and the frankly more appealing, "relaxed" and "naked". Lululemon's website says the Hugged Sensation activewear is "[engineered] ... to feel like a warm embrace from a close friend". Gah! (Via jezebel.com)

Crumbs...she had to go

"Monique, a friend of a friend, was a really selfish flatmate," writes a reader. "They both liked crusty, unsliced bread, and Monique would cut the crusts off both ends, which was annoying as the bread, of course, dried up. Then she began cutting the crusts off the top, bottom and sides so that my friend was left with an unusable (except as bird food) rectangle of the soft stuff in the middle. It was a short-lived flat-sharing arrangement, as this was typical of Monique's self-centred behaviour."

Survivor's harrowing tale

In her own words, a woman who featured on the Humans of New York Facebook page tells her story. "My husband and I sold everything we had to afford the journey. We worked 15 hours a day in Turkey until we had enough money to leave. The smuggler put 152 of us on a boat. Once we saw the boat, many of us wanted to go back, but he told us that anyone who turned back would not get a refund. We had no choice. Both the lower compartment and the deck were filled with people. Waves began to come into the boat so the captain told everyone to throw their baggage into the sea. In the ocean we hit a rock, but the captain told us not to worry. Water began to come into the boat, but again he told us not to worry. We were in the lower compartment and it began to fill with water. It was too tight to move. Everyone began to scream. We were the last ones to get out alive. My husband pulled me out of the window. In the ocean, he took off his life jacket and gave it to a woman. We swam for as long as possible. After several hours he told me he that he was too tired to swim and that he was going to float on his back and rest. It was so dark we could not see. The waves were high. I could hear him calling me but he got further and further away. Eventually a boat found me. They never found my husband." (Kos, Greece)

Amended graffiti 1.

A reader writes: "I heard a story of someone who spray-painted 'New Zealand sux' on a Sydney overbridge. A few days later someone had added 'Australia nil'. Possibly urban myth, but brilliant nevertheless."

And Justin Kan painted over his garage with blackboard paint so his neighbours could express themselves in more positive (& temporary) ways.

Amended graffiti 2.

Picture this: A woman had to take a trip to a hospital after mistaking a can of expanding polyurethane builder's foam for hair mousse (with picture goodness)...

Picture this: In the late 70s the massive influx of cocaine from Latin America into the US saw magazine advertisements offering all kinds of powder snorting paraphernalia...

Picture this: Father of the bride does something lovely...

Video: Clever baby...

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