Sideswipe: April 19: Bread in captivity

Leave scam

A Taiwanese man came up with an ingenious way of getting extended paid leave from work: he got married four times and divorced three times in just 37 days. According to Taiwanese law, a person has the right to eight days' paid work leave when they get married, which is exactly what one unnamed clerk received when he got married last year. After that, it's back to work but the hero of our story had prepared for this in advance. On the last day of his eight-day leave, the man divorced his wife, only to marry her again the next day and ask for another paid leave, to which he felt he was entitled to, by law. He went on to marry the same woman four times, and divorce her three times in 37 days, for a total of 32 days of paid leave.

Coincidences

1. My friend and I were messing around in a phone box '100' years ago. We dialled a random number, not expecting it to exist. A man answered, so thinking quickly I said, "Could I speak to Emma please?" (the first name that came to mind) and the man said "Hang on I'll get her". I dropped the phone as I was so surprised!
2. Years ago I was on a beach in the Caribbean when I could see some hotel staff setting up for a wedding a bit further along the beach. Being a bit nosey, I moved to a closer sun-lounger so I could watch the wedding. Along came the bride and groom who were a couple I knew from my hometown. They'd wanted to elope in secret and there's me grinning, swigging a cocktail and waving like a maniac at the pair of them.
3. I had to defer the exams for one of my degree units for two years. It was Medieval French and I had not touched the subject during those two years. I was okay with the literature part of the exam, but for part of it I also had to translate a text into English. The night before, I panicked, went to the uni library, selected a book in Medieval French at random from the shelves, opened it at random and translated a page. Then I thought, sod it, and went off to the bar. When I got into the exam the next day and looked at the text, it was the exact passage I had translated the night before.

News you may have missed

In 2019, an orange bird saved by passersby and brought to an animal hospital turned out to actually be a seagull in disguise. In a Facebook post, the Tiggywinkles Wildlife Hospital said members of the public rescued a bright orange bird from the side of the road that couldn't fly. "We had no idea what to expect — and would never have guessed this!" the hospital wrote. The bird, as it turned out, was covered "in curry or turmeric," according to the hospital.

Twisted firestarter

If all your kindling for a fire is wet and all you have is matches and snacks, a corn chip will light into a ball of flames. Dryer lint is also good. Stuff it into a empty toilet paper tube and you are good to go. But only if you are doing towels, cottons. If you do polyesters and yoga pants, that lint smells like plastic and is super yucky to burn.