Sideswipe: September 15: A staple of his oeuvre

Photo / Supplied

Ray writes: "We read with keen interest the price obtained for Colin McCahon's The Canoe Tainui and someone then recalled that many years ago they found this previously unknown work by the artist in a second-hand shop. We have reason to believe that it was produced during his 'office period' ... Clearly McCahon was experimenting with his use of text on everyday objects and it would obviously take someone of considerable intelligence and wisdom to make the link between the text and the object. We are only sad that many of our great collectors no longer seem to be adding to their collections. We would be happy to hear from any interested parties, such as Te Papa, who may like to add this to our nation's treasure house ... "

What the flock was that?

A reader writes: "When leaving my parents' house, where I visit on a fairly regular basis in the late afternoon, my father's 'party trick' was to inflate a brown paper bag, go out on to their front porch and burst it with his hands. Why? Because next door there was a massive Phoenix Palm that would be full of hundreds of Sparrows who were roosting for the night. They would all be chattering and tweeting the news of the day to each other, until the humongous 'pop' from next door! Momentarily there would be dead silence, then the hundreds of them would take off. The sky would turn into a massive feathered cloud as they took off for parts unknown ... until next time."

Author's most wondificacious words Roald into one

The 100th anniversary of Roald Dahl's birth this week has been marked with a dictionary of his wonderful, made-up words, including:

1. Gloriumptious. Conveys pure marvellousness by blending together form and meaning from other words. In this case, glorious and scrumptious.

2. Horrigust. Because things aren't always gloriumptious in Dahl's stories. Marvellousness has an opposite and there's no better word for it than horrigust, a blend of horrible and disgusting.

3. Churgle. In Fantastic Mr. Fox, people churgle with laughter. Are they chuckling or gurgling? No need to decide. Why not both at the same time?

4. Whipple-scrumptious fudgemallow delight. This delicacy from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is not only the candy bar in which Charlie finds a Golden Ticket, it's also a phrase that manages to be exciting and delicious all at once.

5. Huggybee. Giants need terms of endearment, too. The BFG tells Sophie to "stay where you is in my pocket, huggybee." It's a term as sweet as honey and as warm as a hug. (Via Mentalfloss.com)

A thought-provoking sign outside St Luke's Church, Remuera.

Women are part of the problem

A reader writes: "Back in the 1980's I was employed by a large Hamilton company whose employees were probably 90% male. I had what was described as an hour glass figure. The boys always called me BT* and no, it didn't stand for Bankers Trust. It wasn't taken or meant offensively in those good old days before political correctness and lack of humour." (*Big Tits)

Close call: Man nearly killed by falling mirror...

Picture this: Can you dump a person by text? Here's a handy flow chart which will help you out...

Video: Cool 3D World is a weird and wonderful place for animation professionals, but this clip is mental and terrifying... and ultimately perplexing...

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