Sideswipe: Stuff your freebies

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A text came through to my phone yesterday offering a deal with Christmas Hamper company Hampsta. Join to get $65 of "free stuff" it said. I rang the 0800 number provided to find the free stuff quickly became a $10 Mad Butcher voucher. The remaining $55 - a $20 joining fee and a $35 "account maintenance fee" - would be paid for you. Voila! $65 worth of free stuff. Er, not really. (Reply with STOP to make them leave you alone)

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Kimberley Koy works at a cattle station in Australia and was roughed up by a cow's horn. She didn't worry because the horn didn't break the skin. A week later she boarded a flight to Sydney to see a Pink concert, and her left breast swelled in-flight. Her breast implant had been damaged by the cattle incident, and the air pressure caused silicone to leak out. Koy said, "When I woke up the day after the plane trip it was double the size of my right one ... I thought I had breast cancer ... If I hadn't have gone to the Pink concert I wouldn't have known my breast was leaking."(Source: MentalFloss.com)

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A reader says her nephew attends Rosehill College, in Papakura, which also has a "No Singlets" policy. "He was sick for a week after he came home shivering from being so cold," she says. "After that he wore a singlet to school and hasn't been sick since. But now he has a comment on his school report about the 'status of his uniform'."

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The 10 most costly wedding singers

1. Rolling Stones (up to $12 million)
2. Sir Elton John (up to $4.8 million)
3. Kylie Minogue (up to $4.8 million)
4. Christina Aguilera (up to $3.6 million)
5. George Michael ($3.1 million million)
6. Amy Winehouse ($2.4 million)
7. Sir Paul McCartney ($2.4 million)
8. Leona Lewis ($2.4 million)
9. Jennifer Lopez ($2.4 million)
10. Barry Manilow (pictured) ($1.8 million)

(Source: Telegraph.co.uk)

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In reply to Alister and the Mt Albert Grammar litter rules ... A reader writes: "While the intention is good, the punishment is completely contrary to any law-making rationale. The rule applied is similar in vein to the rationale of the state when killing innocents such as the Tiananmen Square massacre . Individuals, guilty of nothing but being in the wrong place at the wrong time, are singled out and punished by the state for others to see. What a good example our schools set for the future, no doubt Alister was a model pupil and made an excellent policeman."

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View today's Herald cartoon

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Today's Webpick: Time-lapse clip of a blooming rose. Nature is such a show off. Go here, scroll down.

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