Sideswipe: May 24: For Cliff's sake

For Cliff's sake.

A reader writes: "It's almost too scary to laugh, but these Christians for Trump look like they've put an immigrant from Aotearoa on their lame poster. Is Cliff Curtis the war on Christianity? Or the war against it? Is he Jesus here? Or have they just mistaken him for Boba Fett?"

Best party themes

1. Barbarians & Librarians.

2. "I Can't Believe You Wore That" Party.

3. Underwater Party. "Everyone was going as ocean animals, or mermaids ... but being lazy and overly impressed with our own cleverness, we showed up with squirt guns. Whenever anyone asked us what we were dressed up as we squirted water straight up in the air."

4. The Traffic Light Party. Wear red if you're taken, orange if you're getting to know someone but it's not serious yet, green if you're single.

5. Blackout Party. Remove all the light bulbs from the house and everybody brings a flashlight. It gets so weird.

6. Cross-dressing Party. "The hilarity lies in two aspects of the party - Firstly, the guys usually looked really funny in OTT low-cut tops and short skirts, and secondly, as the night went on, people got drunk enough to momentarily forget that they were at a Gender Bender. As a result, guys (dressed as girls) would start drunkenly chatting up someone in a girl's costume, forgetting that it was a guy."

Tourist-calming measures

Officials in charge of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal heritage site recently installed row upon row of "speed bumps" on a pedestrian walkway. The People's Daily China suggested that officials were irked that "disorderly" tourists had been walking past the ancient grounds too rapidly to appreciate its beauty or context. (Source: Weird Universe)

Photographer to the rescue

"It was 1961, school photo time," writes Brenda Barnes. "My mother requested an additional photo of her twin 6-year-olds together to send back to family in the UK. Gorgeous picture is brought home but Mum is aghast. Standing tall and smiling perfectly we were both barefooted! This photo could never be sent to the UK as going barefoot meant you were too poor to afford shoes. Pleased to say school photographer returned to school to retake a photo, from the waist up only, for mum to send to UK family."

Colin may be an older man ...

More perfectly functional words out of a job

So "outplacement" has replaced "redundant", writes a reader. "You'll also notice that 'outage' has replaced 'breakdown,' contractees (who do the work) have become 'contractors'. hens, fowls, and poultry have vanished - all are now 'chickens', a storm has become a 'weather event', television cooks have turned 'dribble' (a thin unbroken stream of liquid) into drizzle (which actually means a shower of little drops) ... and how often - even on a plane - do we go to a bathroom, which has no bath in it?"

A deconstructed something

A deconstructed something.

Picture this: A TV station in Sweden unintentionally aired a political debate with subtitles from a children's TV show.

Video: History of the entire world, I guess...(Make your kids watch this!)

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