Sideswipe

Sorbent toilet paper advertisement.

It's terribly difficult to advertise toilet paper tastefully. Usually it's animated toilet rolls or dog chasing loo roll - an obvious decision to stay away from the explicit nature of the product's actual purpose. However, the new Sorbent campaign promoting a wet-wipe product has opted for the in-your-face approach with the tagline "Refresh your behind".

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A reader writes: "A friend of mine was a member of the young adult's orchestra playing at Dean Lonergan's Fight for Life in July. This year, they dedicated it to meningitis. Apparently the organisers were afraid of the camera picking up images of drink bottles next to everyone, so instead of letting them have one each, they gave the orchestra one communal drink bottle. Isn't the whole meningitis 'don't share spit' campaign aimed towards kids sharing drink bottles?"

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Some readers were disturbed after reading in Sideswipe yesterday about a cat's supposed capacity for eating a dead human's face, thinking it might be true. So, to clarify, what follows are ridiculous questions urban-legend busters at Snopes the website have received from naive, gullible or stupid people. The suggestions are NOT true.

* Is the Government really as controlling and secretive as books make it out to be? Are there really tons and tons of secret spies all over the world?

* How much would a penguin egg cost to buy and ship to Texas? Email me as soon as you get the answer to this question because I would like to buy one.

* If you sneeze and get into an accident, are you still at fault? Are there any laws?

* Have you heard anything about a palm rub done when someone is shaking or holding hands that indicates they want to have sex with you? It sounds like some kind of secret sex handshake and I've heard nothing about it till today.

* I have heard beggars can make a nice $100,000 salary, I was wondering if this is true.

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A reader writes: "The other day I went to the local Christian bookstore where I saw a 'Honk if you Love Jesus' sticker. I bought and put it on the back bumper of my car. I stopped at the lights of a busy intersection, lost in the thought about the Lord and didn't notice that the light had changed. The bumper sticker really works! I found lots of folk that loved Jesus".

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The world's first smoke and tobacco-free cigarette is due to go on sale early next year. Swissmedic, the Swiss Agency for Therapeutic Products, has decided the NicStic is not a medicinal product and has cleared the path for its commercial production. The smokeless and tobacco-free cigarette uses a rechargeable heating coil in a plastic cigarette-sized stick to dispense nicotine without smoke. The company promises that dragging on it releases "a similar taste" to cigarettes without the health issues from tar, arsenic, cadmium and formaldehyde that a normal cigarette contains. But the Swiss Institute for Alcohol and Drug Prevention says: "Nicotine is what makes smoking addictive, and so this product changes nothing."