Sideswipe: May 30: Aisle from hell

Maybe go there tomorrow, not today.

What did your parents do that you would never let your kids do?

"My dad used to load about six of us kids (me, my brother, and some neighbourhood kids) up on the step bars on the side of his van. We would stand on either side of the van, then he would drive around the block and jerk the wheel to throw us off. We loved playing that game."

"Never enforced seatbelt wearing. I remember having to quickly pull it across me when we saw a traffic cop ahead."

"My mum never taught me how to brush my teeth when I was little. 'Her baby teeth are just going to fall out anyway! I'll teach her when she's older!' Single mum with three jobs, five kids, blasting through abusive relationship to abusive relationship ... Yeah. She never got around to it."

Strike a light

Matches were invented accidentally in 1826 by chemist John Walker who while stirring a pot of chemicals noticed a lump formed on the end of the mixing stick. He tried scraping the dried chemicals off, igniting the stick accidentally. He went on to invent the first match, which revolutionised the production, application and the portability of fire. Walker's first "Friction Matches" were made of cardboard but he soon began to use wooden splints cut by hand. He sold them from his pharmacy in Stockton on Tees, packaging the matches in a cardboard box with a piece of sandpaper for striking. He was advised to patent his matches but chose not to and as a result, Samuel Jones of London copied his idea and launched his own "Lucifers" in 1829.

Swipe left

Spotted heading south out of Melbourne by Alan. "I immediately thought 'swipe left'," he quips.

Quick links

1. Hapless Boston Dynamics robot in shelf stacking fail.

2. What's this slot for?

3. John Oliver on the Royal Wedding.

Video pick

Clubbing in the wild...

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