Sideswipe: March 25: Top librarian humour in Hamilton

In Taiwan buy, buy, buy

Taiwan Premier Su Tseng and the Taiwan Government is taking a very different approach in how it advises its citizens. Instead of punishing its people for fear-based impulse purchases, it is encouraging them to buy as much as their panicked heart desires. Writing on his Facebook page late on Thursday in a post entitled "Buy as much as possible, there's plenty of goods", Taiwan Premier Su Tseng-chang said it was the ideal opportunity to buy more Taiwanese products in a boon for the economy. "Taiwan is a kingdom of fruits, a kingdom of fisheries, and a big food-processing country. During the Wuhan epidemic, as the economy was slowing down, of course the Government encourages everyone to enthusiastically buy," he wrote.

Veges got the goods

Keeping up the vegetable intake during a pandemic is important, but you may not be inclined to pop to the supermarket as frequently as before. The good news is frozen, canned and fermented veg are nearly as good as their just-picked versions. The shelf life of fresh vegetables is generally short (three to 14 days) even when refrigerated. Freezing, on the other hand, can preserve the nutritional quality of vegetables and increase their shelf life to up to 12 months. If you want to freeze vegetables yourself, select those that are fresh, undamaged and in season and blanch them quickly before freezing. This helps retain colour, flavour and nutritional quality. Some vegetables such as tomato, capsicum and corn do not need to be blanched before freezing. Canned veges are also a good alternative to fresh, but remember once opened, canned vegetables should be stored in a separate container and consumed within three days. And finally fermented vegetables like kimchi and sauerkraut are long lasting and full of goodness. (Via The Conversation)

Works for a flooring company

Tail wagging the dog

Rolo the sausage dog from Essex managed to strain his tail by wagging it so hard. Rolo's owner, Emma, explains: "So my dog has been so happy that everyone is home for quarantine, that his tail has stopped working, so we went to the vet and the vet said he had sprained his tail from excessively wagging". Rolo had strained ligaments and tendons between his tail and spine. He was treated with an anti-inflammatory injection in his tail and is taking painkillers every day for a week. (Via Metro.co.uk)