Sideswipe: Aug 22: Who needs a knife?

This extraneous kitchen drawer filler is a Victorio Kitchen Products 571B Banana Slicer. It's available on Amazon and is endorsed in this customer review: "For decades I have been trying to come up with an ideal way to slice a banana. 'Use a knife!' they say. Well ... my parole officer won't allow me to be around knives. 'Shoot it with a gun.' Background check ... HELLO! I had to resort to carefully attempt to slice those bananas with my bare hands - 99.9 per cent of the time I would get so frustrated that I just ended up squishing the fruit in my hands and throwing it against the wall in anger. Then, after a fit of banana-induced rage, my parole officer introduced me to this kitchen marvel and my life was changed. No longer consumed by seething anger and animosity towards thick-skinned yellow fruit. Banana slicer ... thanks to you, I see greatness on the horizon."

Reminder of how to be nice

A reader writes: "I found a note alongside a birthday card and a Westfield gift voucher at my grandma's house, she left it there for my grandfather to write in for his sister's birthday. The note said: 'Write something nice, how you appreciate having a sister. Happy family memories."

Delights of foot x-ray

"A childhood friend maintains, that 60 years ago, a trip to Queen St was incomplete, without going into Hannah's Shoe Store to use the foot x-ray," writes Kath Faughey of Mt Albert. "She says when you slipped your foot into the special box it showed a skeleton foot. Does anybody else remember this gimmick?"

Thanks to Fairy God Plumber

Reading the story of the plumber fixing the fence reminded Megan of the morning she left the plumber installing a dishwasher. "When I got home I noticed someone had been in my garage and had fixed my automatic garage door which had dislodged itself from the brackets on the wall. I was a newly single mum and going though a bit of a rough time. I now refer to Glen as my Fairy God Plumber ... he will never know how much his efforts meant to me on that day."

Irony in action

Regarding yesterday's "failed windows update" picture, Joerg writes: "What is most hilarious about this building is the sign to the right-hand side. It's the office of the state construction company of Russia."