Sideswipe: May 31: Controversial food opinions

Pickled knots of tree anger.

1. "Olives are not food. They are pickled knots of tree anger whose only distinguishing characteristic is a byproduct of whatever flavour of liquid malice they have had the misfortune to be embalmed in. Olive oil is the other end of the tree's emotional spectrum." @HeartofTXSam

2. "Macarons: look delicious, taste like polystyrene and glue." @FionaSturges

3. "If you replaced calamari with the rubber band that holds broccoli, and then deep fry it, no one would know the difference." @Nickname0421

4. "Vegetables from the brassica family (broccoli, kale, cabbage, brussel sprouts, cauliflower etc) are delicious. They have a poor reputation simply because people don't know how to prepare them properly. It's time to end the brassica slander." @renireni

5. "Lettuce is crunchy water." @Joannechocolat

Days of the shared phone line

News that phone boxes in NZ and USA are being removed reminded Robert Swan of the days of sharing a party line. "When living in a farm house in the Okamario Valley below Mount Riley (now vineyards), we shared a party line with four other farms, each having its own call sign - three long or short long short etc. My wife was on the phone ordering her groceries from the Renwick general store when she was interrupted by a party line member (you could very impolitely listen in on another's conversation) who urgently wanted to report a fire. On hanging up, my wife on looking out the back door saw it was our garage burning brightly."

Stamp nostalgia

Beautiful 70s design.

Male mice are terrified of bananas

Apparently, the distinctive scent of a banana stresses mice out, but only the blokes. Researchers from McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, learned about this unusual fruit aversion while analysing spiking stress hormones in male mice when the males were close to pregnant or lactating females - triggered by the presence of a compound called n-pentyl acetate in the females' urine. It's also the compound that gives bananas their distinctive smell. In the paper, researchers wrote that "male mice, especially virgin males, are well known to engage in infanticidal aggression to advance their genetic fitness". As a way to keep these potential predators at bay, pregnant and lactating females rely on chemosignaling, or emitting chemical responses through their bodies, to send messages to the males to stay away from their offspring. (Via Live Science)