Sideswipe: Comfort stop

Is the city council offering commuters a good reason for not catching the bus to work? Snapped in Onehunga.

Ad not abreast of the times

The British Advertising Standards Agency has ordered Trickett's door and window company to stop using an ad showing a topless woman with her breasts covered by a pair of door knockers. The ad read: "We sell big knockers - Window Handles, Door Handles, Window Hinges." The agency said the ad objectified and degraded women. It also found the knockers in the ad didn't look like those the company sells. (Source: Reason.com)

Insurance puzzle

Dean wants to be a safer driver, so he looked into Defensive Driving courses run by the AA. "They cost $130 and I was assured by the person on the phone they will make me a safer driver. Excellent. Then on a whim, I called AA Insurance to see how much of a reduction on my motor vehicle insurance I would get for being a 'safer driver' ... Nothing. On one hand, you have the AA touting $130 better-drivers courses, and then failing to acknowledge their own course even works by applying a discount. Go figure."

On insurance - again

"Forget car insurance! Try to get travel insurance when you are a healthy 81-year-old," says John O'Neill of Sandringham. "The very few who will even consider you will load your premium for a basic three weeks of cover up to 30 per cent of the airfare!"

Unsustainable energy

Roger Wadham has replaced so many eco light bulbs he is now writing the date on the base with a felt pen so he knows how long they are lasting. "These might be saving power but they sure seem unreliable, and are expensive to buy," he says.

Bad timing

Monique has a question: "Whose bright idea was it to close the Southern Motorway on Father's Day?"

Today's Webpick: This local tourism promotional film, Holiday For Susan (1962), includes some cheesy one-liners ("Women, of course, won't take fishing seriously, but they'll enjoy it just the same") and footage of the stylish departure lounge at Auckland Airport and the Parnell Baths....

Go here.



The new Sideswipe book True Life Laughs ($19.99) is out now. Buy it at all good bookstores or right here, right now at Fishpond.co.nz.



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