Sideswipe: December 28: Batrooms for sale

"I noticed this sign on my walk in Hikurangi and wondered if it'd suit for nature lovers or superheroes!" writes a reader.

What untruth did you believe for the longest time?

1. Trickle down economics.

2. When I was little my aunt who was a bit overweight told me she was allergic to sugar. That if she ate sugar she would break out in fat. I went to school and told all my friends.

3. I was told, as a passenger, if you watch the windscreen wipers you'll get hypnotised.

4. It wasn't until my own daughter started going to birthdays and playing pass the parcel that I realised it was rigged.

5. When I was doing a Contiki tour around Europe in my early 20s we went to Monaco and the coach driver said that they don't have an official border as such. He said when we drive through a certain tunnel everybody must hold their passports up against the window and some incredible technology will photograph them. About 80 per cent of the tour stood up with their passports against the glass, me included.

Hard sell

A reader says that nervousness about houses being numbered 13 is not confined to New Zealand. Max Cryer's book Superstitions reports that house prices in Britain fall significantly if the property is number 13, and some British councils have banned 13 as a property number. London's famous Downing St has 20 houses ... but no No 13.

A clever poem.