Sideswipe

Dedicated parenting for the broadband era, taken by a New Zealand traveller at Nadi Airport.

One mother curses the back-to school chore of book-covering. She writes: "With two primary school children, not only did I spend hours battling the sticky rolls on to the covers of flimsy exercise books, but there was also the agony of choosing the stupid stuff in the first place. When did we start this crazy fad of covering books and why? My two children's combined school fees and stationery packs cost $707.25, which includes $13 just for very ordinary, non-branded book coverings. I checked in my children's wardrobes and not one of the schoolbooks that came home from last year were covered. Where did the covered ones go? Used and chucked after a couple of months. So I ask, if our school exercise books are so weak and easily damaged that they need covering, wouldn't it be a really great idea to make the books with stronger covers? Nevertheless, am I brave enough to send my children to school with naked school books? No way. Imagine the humiliation. Pass the next 1B5, I'm on a roll."

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Driving north on the Hauraki Plains on Waitangi Day a reader read road signs promoting road safety which really made him think. They said: "18 per cent of accidents involve trucks, 41 per cent of accidents occur on corners, 35 per cent of accidents occur through poor observation. So that also means 82 per cent of accidents don't involve trucks, 59 per cent of accidents occur on straights and 65 per cent of accidents happen to alert drivers. Taking this logic to its limits, I figured that if you only drive trucks, only drive around corners and wear a blindfold, you have a much reduced chance of being involved in an accident."

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Creative copywriters: An ad for a property in Mosman, Sydney, offering "filtered water views" is beaten only by a large real estate sign on another property near Lake Macquarie advertising the kitchen style as "shabby sheik". (Source: Sydney Morning Herald.) 

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A reader would like to share his experience at the Mission Bay Jazz and Blues Festival: "As an under 20-year-old (18, to be precise) I was appalled by the lack of manners shown to me by the 50-plus age group. While dancing away to one of the bands an older (50-plus) 'gentleman' grabbed me by the neck and told me, 'You have 10 seconds to move or sit down, or I will drag you out'. And they say that my generation has no manners. A simple 'Excuse me, my wife can't see, would you mind moving please?' would have sufficed."