Sideswipe: July 5: Clear as mud prescription

How not to write a prescription. Photo / Supplied

Teenagers not all bad

Teens are forever getting a bad rap, but Robyn wrote this to Massey High School to give some positive feedback for a change. "I don't usually write to schools but I really want you to know about one of your students," she writes. "I have worked in the city for 15 years now and very rarely do I see acts of kindness. Yesterday while waiting at the lights on Queen St I watched as an older homeless man buried himself in a rubbish bin looking for scraps. He pulled an empty tetra drink out and shook it but there was nothing. Then one of your students, who was with a group of other students, patted him on the shoulder and handed him her sushi and carried on with her friends up Victoria St, like this was a normal act. Meanwhile, the lights changed and the homeless man and myself crossed paths on the road and he was clutching that sushi like it was gold. You should be very proud of her and how she represents your school."

Boat name brilliance

Althea Hill of Thames Coast writes: "I once owned a small boat called Whipper Snapper which I thought was a rather cute and clever name dreamt up by its previous owner. But today I noticed a name that really made me smile. It was one of those super-duper, macho-marine jobs that's well, you know, significantly larger than what tows it. Its name was Angler Management. Good one, Popeye."

Ladies! Take the drudgery out of housework by ... Photo / Supplied

Contradiction in terms

I agree with Form Fury but for me the frustration is with the word Pakeha. I have a Pakeha mother who was born in New Zealand and my father is Ngati Kahu. I need to be identified as both English and Maori but when you translate this it literally means I am "non-Maori, Maori". The word Pakeha is a description for what we are not (non-Maori). Surely there should be a more appropriate word for what we actually are, maybe New Zealanders?

Ethnicity vs nationality

Ian writes: "It seems people still confuse nationality with ethnicity. New Zealander is a nationality, but includes people of many different ethnicities including European, Maori, Pacific Islander, African, Asian etc. These are generalist terms (Pacific Islander can be Polynesian or Melanesian, European ranges from Scandinavian to Greek ). There is no such thing as a New Zealander ethnicity."

Video: Australian stand-up comedian, Jim Jefferies, recalls his hilarious interaction with Al Pacino and Warren Beatty, at an exclusive Hollywood party...

Picture this: A compilation of pictures that you have to look twice at...

Video: In this short film by Auckland-based Media Design School students, a father possum reads his kids an ABCs of accidental animal expirations! (You absolutely must show this black comedy to your alphabet learning aged kids)

Herald app users tap here for today's video.

Got a Sideswipe? Send your pictures, links and anecdotes to Ana at ana.samways@nzherald.co.nz