Sideswipe: July 17: Never in doubt, my foot!

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Never in doubt, my foot! "Our daughter lives in London and was at the cricket at Lord's on Sunday," writes Kerry. "She is gutted by the result and the reaction of the English people. She says a version of this ad is at almost every tube station."

Truth or tall tales?

"I got told a story once by a Māori Language teacher of mine during my time at high school," writes Handsome Kiei Boy on Reddit. "A dam in the Waikato had begun to have visible cracks in the concrete on the outside part of the dam and some divers were organised to dive down and check the inside submerged part of the dam for damage on that side. While they were down there, there was the usual debris you would find behind a man-made wall which prevents the water from flowing as it would normally do if there wasn't a dam. Turns out what they thought were large logs were in fact huge eels which had gotten to the size of logs due to being prevented from migrating to the sea, where they breed and die. So from being prevented from doing their natural life duties they just get larger and larger. That would be creepy, seeing eels deep down in the water just floating around ... "

Big-penguin prank

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In February 1948, giant three-toed footprints were found on a Florida beach. It looked like they had been made by an enormous sea turtle, except for the fact they were spaced too far apart. Over the following months, more prints continued to be found. In November 1948, naturalist Ivan Sanderson examined some of them and speculated they had been made by a "vast penguin," 15-feet (4.5m) tall. The mystery wasn't fully solved until 1988 when a local prankster, Tony Signorini, admitted he had made them with the help of a friend. He had strapped cast-iron monster-print shoes to his feet and then stomped up and down along local beaches.

Hair-lotion secret out

Carol Smytheman replies to Yvonne over the distinctive-smelling hair lotion: "My mother Nancy Chandler, was one of the children's hairdressers working for Milne & Choyce at that time. It was called "Will Snip the Barber" and was on the sixth floor. The pink hair lotion you mention was a mixture of: Gum "Twag", Bay rum, and the colouring was a bit of cochineal and it sold for 1 shilling and 3 pence a bottle. Whilst it was called Twag, it was obviously an abbreviation for Tragacanth which is a gum extracted from the root of the plant and dates back 5000 years and originates from the Middle East. Also it is known as Katira. It is used as an addition to shampoo or conditioner because of its gelling qualities."

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