Sideswipe: July 20: Dark side of Survivor NZ

Dark side of the moon? Photo / Supplied

Dark side of the moon

"This image of the moon appears often in the current series of Survivor New Zealand," writes Tony. "But it's a fake. We can tell because the bright side of the moon is lit by the sun so always faces the sun. Here it is facing up so the sun is up in the sky. But it's night so the sun isn't up. Hence the image is fake. I wonder what else is fake. Maybe the whole series is shot in a sound stage in Henderson."

Oh no, those awesome quotes again

Following on from Donald Trump's claim he'd "misspoken" about Russia's meddling in the US election Seven Sharp did their own story about other times famous people had flubbed badly in public ... US politician Sarah Palin called North Korea an ally, Australian politician Tony Abbott declared that "no-one is the suppository of all wisdom" and pop star Justin Bieber "misspoke" when he said the Sistine Chapel was the Sixteenth Chapel ...

Then there was that famous one, says Hilary ... and I yell at the TV, "don't do it!" knowing they were going to trot out the myth of the David Tua O for Awesome, yet again. So to set the record straight, this appeared in Sideswipe after a reader suggested he'd said O for Ocean back in 2009: "Adam Green from Mai FM's B-rocka's Bad Breakfast writes: " ... we decided to put it out to our listeners ... A lot of texts/calls came through, including one from David's wife and manager Robina Tua, who sets the record straight after 17 years.

Photo / Supplied

She says what David actually said was O For Olsen, as in Olsen Filipaina, the famous Kiwi league player and friend of the Tua family. After some intense YouTube listening we wholeheartedly agree. But she did also say that O For Awesome being what it is now, they are happy to have it that way."

Hedging bets on berm vandals

Megan Mills of Western Springs writes: "Before we complain about anyone making a mess of our berms perhaps we should check that we're not forcing them there by narrowing the footpath with our plantings?
I've even seen some hedges that have almost completely overgrown the footpath and when there's no berm between the footpath and road it does worse than force people onto the berms to get past — they're forced out onto the road."