Sideswipe: Feb 01: Tacky trinket for new Aussies

Beer cooling device, civic gift.

"I've applied for Australian citizenship," writes an ex-pat Kiwi. "This is what you get in your new citizen gift bag - a stubbie holder with what appears to be a stripper holding an Aussie flag. I'm wondering how the refugees living up here from Afghanistan will feel about their stubbie holder when they get one next year."

Bad juxtaposition.

Potato dumpling launcher no mere pie-in-the-sky idea

News nostalgia. In 1967, Munich resident Helmut G. Winter was sick and tired of the noise of military aircraft flying over his house. So he built a catapult and started launching Bavarian potato dumplings at the planes. In one week he launched 120 yet never managed to score a direct hit. Eventually both the West German Luftwaffe and American pilots conceded defeat and agreed to a flight path that avoided his house. Reportedly, he gave the Americans a model of his dumpling cannon as a gesture of thanks. (Source: Weird Universe)

More than just a fridge

"Back in 1951, my folks bought a new fridge for our Norsewood, Hawkes Bay house," writes Jim McCutcheon. "It shifted with them to a new house in Maraetai in 1966. One of the door hinges broke so a new fridge was purchased and I scored the Frigidaire. I repaired the hinge and it came to live with us in 1972 in my (now married) home at Bucklands Beach. It now found itself doing beer fridge duties and has outlasted four new and used replacement fridges, and sits quietly murmuring in our spare room. I still have all of the various ice and ice cream making accessories. My oldest son has staked a claim on it as it is part of his family history as it mumbled away in what was his bedroom for years."

Tunnels door to our past

Gun emplacement.

"Mike is puzzled over a tunnel entry that was exposed on a hill in Auckland after vegetation was cleared," writes Colleen Wright. "This would likely be a tunnel built during World War II. We also spotted one unexpectedly when bush was cleared to make way for the board-walk that was built a while back between Little Bucklands Beach and Half Moon Bay. It turned out to be a gun emplacement. These were constructed in various points around Auckland - as an attempt to defend ourselves - when we were under imminent threat of Japanese invasion. Thankfully, they weren't needed due to the arrival, in June 1942, of 750 American troops arriving on five transport ships along with a cruiser and a destroyer."

A for originality Pete.

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Got a Sideswipe? Send your pictures, links and anecdotes to Ana at ana.samways@nzherald.co.nz