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Home / New Zealand

<i>Sideswipe:</i> Thursday

20 Jun, 2007 05:00 PM3 mins to read

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Opinion

KEY POINTS:

Why buy when you can rent? This from Cake Rental.com: We provide a service where you can rent the beautifully designed centrepiece wedding cake. The main cake is covered with real fondant with the looks and feel of a real cake in every aspect, however the inside is made of foam and there is a small compartment to place a small portion of edible cake for the ceremony. After the couple's "feeding each other" act, the display cake is taken into the kitchen and the guests are served regular sheet cakes from the local bakery or wholesale store.

* * *

The naughty street corner: Barbara sent us in the following tale. "Last Sunday, 12 o'clock, bitterly cold, a well-dressed little girl - about 3 years old - stood alone on the corner of High St and Victoria - her frightened screams echoing down the street. When I asked, 'Where's your mummy?' a woman emerged from a vehicle and snarled, 'I'm teaching her a lesson. She's staying there till she's learned it.' While the little girl was standing alone on a city footpath screaming with fear, her mother was nearby, behind the tinted windows of her late-model black Range Rover. What was the lesson the little girl had to learn? I didn't find out. She was dragged into the front seat, no seat belt, and off through the red light.

* * *

Bet Enterprise Northland wished it hadn't surveyed 318 visitors to Whangarei's information centre, because it found one in six visitors used Whangarei as a toilet stop on their way to somewhere else. Northland's biggest city is hardly a drawcard for tourists, with up to 40 per cent of visitors finding themselves in Whangarei because they have seen the city on a road map or road sign. The survey also found that only 40 per cent of visitors were in Whangarei on holiday, another 40 per cent were en route to another destination - usually the Bay of Islands - and the remaining 20 per cent were visiting family or doing business.

* * *

Police in Southern Germany are quizzing a 17-year-old car crash victim who turned off a fellow hospital patient's life-support machine because it was keeping him awake. Frederik Moelner was disturbed by the noisy life-support machine keeping the 76-year-old in the neighbouring bed breathing. Rather than take a sedative, the 17-year-old pulled the plug on the machine. Luckily medical staff quickly realised what had happened, reconnected the pensioner and called the police. (Source: The Register)

* * *

More pranks in brief:

* A friend changed the auto correction setting on a colleague's computer to automatically replace "and" with something embarrassing but not offensive, like "I love you", and see if they proof read their emails before sending them to clients.

* More revenge than prank, but when a telephone call from London to New York cost around $3 a minute, a scorned stewardess went to her pilot boyfriend's flat just after he had left on a long trip to Australia, and dialled the New York speaking clock, then put the receiver on the table and closed the door.

* It was kite day and the children were flying their creations. A teacher rang the dental nurse pretending to be the airport control tower suffering radar interference. "Is anything going on in your area?" The dental nurse was last seen running round the field shouting "Get them down! Get them down!

Each day Sideswipe will link to a humorous, satirical or simply strange video clip selected from the infinite amount of nothingness hosted on YouTube and the like. The very best online videos will be carefully chosen and hosted on Ana's online magazine Spare Room and shared with Sideswipe readers. Today's Video Webpick: If you're from Southland and older than 30 you'll remember famous Tau Tau Chicken ad as vividly as I do. What a special jingle, what a very special regional television presentation direct from Invercargill. Watch it here.
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