Sideswipe

Richard Honnor was feeling lucky until he went into a Ponsonby Lotto outlet to buy a Big Wednesday ticket. "I asked for an $8 ticket and placed $20 on counter. As the cashier is taking ticket from machine and about to hand me $12 change an oscillating fan behind counter snatched the note, blew it off the counter and into a seemingly irretrievable crack between the till and counter. The boss comes out from back room and after much discussion tells me it's my tough luck, there never was $20 and to sling my hook. Two phone calls to Lotteries Commission in Wellington reunited us with our original ticket and change."

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The acting PM of Chechnya is floating the idea of polygamy because women outnumber men there by 10 per cent. Whereas the gender imbalance here is due to the lure of sterling or Bondi Beach, in Chechnya it's because of war fatalities.

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Mcdonald's - a family job: The world's largest restaurant chain is trialing a scheme in the UK whereby two people from the same family working at the same branch of McDonalds can cover each other's shifts without giving any notice. "By giving our employees the freedom to manage their shift commitments, we will increase their motivation and enjoyment of work," said a spokesperson. "In the future we may even look to extend it beyond the family to include friends and extended family members such as cousins." (Source: Reuters)

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From the Sydney Morning Herald: Rory O'Donoghue writes, "Discussing opera after dinner, 9-year-old Kirsty said, 'I don't like opera'. I replied, 'That's OK, opera is an acquired taste', to which she replied, 'I don't like the choir either'."

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A reader who would really like to slap her neighbour writes to Sideswipe instead: "Thank you to the thoughtful neighbour in our small and quiet Auckland cul de sac who reported our car for being parked on the road outside our home ... No, it hadn't been moved for a few weeks, but if you had looked inside you would have seen that the ignition switch had been destroyed during an attempted theft. Thanks to your kind attention we now have a $200 ticket because the WOF expired while it was sitting there. If it was offending you that much, it would have been so much nicer if you had simply walked down the drive and offered to help shift it."