Sharp reply
A teenager on the run from police in Australia asked a TV station to use a "better photo" of her when reporting her escape. Amy Sharp is alleged to have broken out of a police station in Sydney before running away. Police issued a statement and photographs they had taken of her. But when the pictures were uploaded to Sydney's 7 News Facebook page, the first person to comment was Sharp herself. Clearly unhappy with how she looked in the police mugshots, in which she wore a glum expression and a red blanket draped over her shoulders, she uploaded a more flattering shot in the comments section of the page with a request to use the supplied shot.
Teaching disrespect
Douglas writes: "There was a standing committee at the Edinburgh boys school I attended in the 1950s/60s whose job was to identify the latest fashions, so they could ban them. When drainpipe trousers were all the rage the rule was that you had to be able to remove your trousers without taking your shoes off. Then flares came in so the rule became that your trousers could not be wider than the length of your shoes. The fashionistas among us favoured black jerseys, so these were banned. In response we got our mothers to knit us charcoal grey jumpers, and we carried the wrapping from the ball of wool in our pockets to prove they were grey. And so on; all those tiny-minded teachers did was create a group of young men with a very healthy disrespect for authority."
Bum steer
"In 1960 at Christchurch West High School we had a new science teacher called Mr Anderson," writes a reader. "One day at the start of the school year he caught me talking and sent me out into the corridor to await my fate. He came out, rolled up strap in hand, and said: 'Look, I don't want to get the new term off to a bad start but I have to set an example to the rest to the class'. I nodded and bent over. With that he unfurled his strap, walked over to the wall and belted it 3 times - WHACK WHACK WHACK reverberated through the long corridor. '
'Right,' he said, 'look sorry for yourself and rub your bum as you go back in'. He was a great teacher and a good bloke."