Sideswipe: February 28: Ambo humour

Spotted outside the St John Ambulance and Northland Rescue Helicopter base in Whangarei.

An nice play on words spotted outside the St John Ambulance and Northland Rescue Helicopter base in Whangarei.

All things 80s
1. An art collective in a Los Angeles storefront re-created (for a two-week run in January) a retro video store which featured only boxed VHS editions of the movie Jerry Maguire- about 14,000 copies.

2. In the 80s, a Welsh farmer grew so fed up with the RAF flying so low over his house that he painted "Piss Off Biggles" in giant letters on the roof of his barn. This prompted the RAF to use the barn as a navigational landmark - although flying higher to respect his wishes.

3. Kevin Bacon, while preparing for his role in Footloose (1984), enrolled at a high school under a fake name to study teenagers.

4. There's a DC Universe character from the 80s who got his powers from cocaine. His only weakness? Cocaine addiction. "I am Snowflame! Every cell of my being burns with white-hot ecstasy. Cocaine is my God - and I am the human instrument of its will!"

5. Michael Jackson and Freddie Mercury collaborated in the 80s, but Mercury broke it off because Jackson kept bringing in his pet llama to the recording studio.

6. Rival ice cream truck drivers in Glasgow in the 80s sold drugs from their trucks, shot at each other, and committed arson in the Glasgow Ice Cream Wars.

Recycling a waste of time?
Lance from Hamilton went to the Bruce Springsteen concert on Saturday, and was pleased to see posters plastered around the stadium, that Mt Smart was committed to "Zero Waste". There were numerous rubbish bins scattered round the stadium in pairs - yellow for Recycling and red for Waste. It was also heartening to watch people studiously sorting their rubbish before putting it into the appropriate bin. It was, therefore, amusing to see one of the workers emptying the bins. First he would look to see how much was in each bin, and as each was lined with a plastic bag, he would then proceed to empty one plastic bag into the other and walk away with only one bag - with the combined contents of the recycle and waste bins.

Piper bags a Boss ticket
A reader writes: "A young Scotsman was playing Born in the USA on his bagpipes on the way to the Springsteen concert on Saturday night. A guy walking by went up to him and gave him a ticket. His reaction of sheer joy and surprise had everyone passing by smiling and clapping. A fabulous start to a great night."