Sideswipe: July 22: Junk mail delivery has rubbish pay rate

Flyer delivery pays a pittance.

It seems there is a thriving cheap labour market in the advertising flyer distribution business. A reader, who wanted to teach her child the value of a dollar, got her a circular delivery gig in their neighbourhood. "For sorting and delivering 10 different pieces of junk mail [from big name corporates] to 250 houses, my daughter will be paid the princely sum of $21. The real issue is sorting the 10 different flyers into bundles with one of each. Add to that the petrol because nobody could carry that much weight. It took us (yes, us!) around four hours, that's $5 an hour. Come on, Big Business, I'm sure you pay market rates to the people who make the flyers, why the raw deal for those delivering?"

Pup proves hard to rescue

"On a walk between Mission Bay and Okahu Bay," writes a reader, "my husband had a distressed pedestrian point out that he had seen a pup go into the water that seemed unable to get out. The husband went to the steps and gave the pup encouragement, tapping the wall and saying 'here boy, here boy'. The pup made its way over, but was still unable to get to the steps, so the 'heroic rescuer' took his trousers, socks and shoes off ready to reach in to help the very cute, but unusual looking pup, to shore. Others had gathered to watch and were asking what he was doing. It was then he realised that it was in fact a seal pup, albeit a very friendly and obliging one. To be fair it was before 7am and it was rather dim light!"

Parents who make the kids cringe

A survey of kids from 5 to 20 has revealed the most embarrassing things that parents do in front of their children.

1. Dancing in public.

2. Public displays of affection - to their children or with each other.

3. Using outdated slang and trying to join in with "youth speak".

4. Wearing age-inappropriate clothes.

5. Telling cringeworthy stories, anecdotes or baby stories.

6. Tidying up after their children.

7. Joining social media and "friending" their children.

8. Being useless at technology in general.

9. Talking about the facts of life.

10. Drinking too much.

(Source: telegraph.co.uk)

Say something that'll shift them...anything.

'Business' intercourse within the law

Adultery is illegal in Japan except, as a Tokyo District Court judge ruled in a "psychological distress" lawsuit filed by a jilted wife, when it is done by a company to retain a good customer. A nightclub hostess who had carried on with a married man proved that she did so only as "makura eigyo", or a "pillow sales tactic". The judge said, "As long as the intercourse is for business, it does not harm the marital relationship at all."
(The ruling, from 2014, was first publicised this year.) (Via News of the Weird)

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