Sideswipe: April 15: Gran-standing pressure

Gran-standing pressure.

When Regan Speyer asked her mother to take care of her plants while she was away, her mum took the opportunity to troll her daughter and drop some big hints about wanting grandchildren, sending her daughter pictures of her reading a storybook to her plants and taking them for a walk to the park. She even dubbed herself a "grandplantrent".

Beer prices tough to swallow

When deciding on where to travel, the price of beer can be a consideration. At the very least, it pays to know how much of a beer budget you will need. A survey by amica-international.co.uk found Hong Kong has expensive brews, with patrons shelling out an average of $16 a pint. In Geneva, pints cost $15.94, and in Tel Aviv $14.11. Pints in New York City cost on average $13.28. Eastern Europe and Southeast Asia have much cheaper brews. A pint costs an average $3.39 at bars in Bratislava. Kiev will set you back $3.42 and Ho Chi Minh City $3.82. Auckland came in at $5.60. The average supermarket price was combined with the bar price to get the average. (Source: Mental Floss)

Mondegreen confessions

1. Neville Nielsen of Orewa writes, "Our son was about 3 or 4 when we heard him singing: 'All things bright and beautiful, all peaches great and small'. He knew about peaches but not about creatures."

2. My husband thought Carol King's song was "you make me feel like a man or a woman" rather than a natural woman. When my son was about four, I was surprised and a little perturbed to hear him singing Boney M's Motherless Child with such enthusiasm, until I realised that he was singing "sometimes I feel like a marvellous child".

3. A reader writes: "Many years ago there was a session on radio where people were telling the announcer how they had got song lyrics so wrong. The one that sticks in my mind was "cheap wine and a female goat" when it should have been "cheap wine and a three-day growth" by Cold Chisel. Our family still sing the goat version as it is far better than the original!"

Don't fight it

Like it or not, you will be saved, so don't fight it.

Video Pick

A bloke is working out at the gym in California when a red SUV crashes into the room…

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