Sideswipe: Topical pitch

Muammar's Manly Madness sale. Photo / Supplied

Muammar's Manly Madness sale - spotted in a clothing store window in Manly, Whangaparaoa.

Baby trend takes the cake

Instead of the sonographer telling them, pending parents in the United States are finding out if they're having a boy or a girl by throwing a gender cake party. The parents ask the sonographer to write the gender on a piece of paper which they give (without looking at it) to their cake maker, who makes the inside of their cake either blue or pink. When the happy couple cut into the cake, in front of family and friends, the colour reveals the baby's gender.

Good warning, bad timing

A reader writes: "Thank you Vector for your letter advising us that our power will be cut off for four hours and telling us to ensure that we are prepared for the disruption if we use medical equipment that relies on electricity. Pity it arrived four days after the event!"

Keeping tabs on towels

Hotels are deploying new technology to combat one of the menaces of the hospitality industry - the towel thief. The anti-theft system, which could soon be arriving in Britain, uses washable radio-frequency tags stitched into towels, bathrobes and other linen which can trigger an alarm if removed from the premises. The US company which patented the technology said one hotel in Hawaii which introduced the tags last year had seen towel theft tumble from 4000 a month to just 750, saving more than £9000 ($18,466) a month. "Any given month, hotels can lose 5 to 20 per cent of towels, sheets and robes. That gets expensive with the rising cost of cotton," said William Serbin, executive vice-president of Florida-based Linen Technology Tracking. (Telegraph.co.uk)

Fingers just a bit fishy

Tim writes: "I'd suggest Wendela Walta (Sideswipe, April 18) check what she's buying: the ingredients list on a box of Independent Fish Fingers shows they contain fish mince, and at most 40 per cent fish. The rest is filler. Hardly 'fish' at all. Sealord at least uses fillet ('joined fillet') so would be much healthier; unfortunately they changed the crumb they use a few months ago and rendered the fingers inedible."