Sideswipe: June 11: Sign with a twist

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We had to chuckle when this sign was spotted in O'Connell St, Auckland. We tried pecan but couldn't crack the inside joke.

Feline fakir foils neighbours

A reader writes: "Our 15-year-old cat has always slept on our neighbour's external central heating unit for warmth, until recently when new neighbours arrived. To deter our old moggy, they put five pieces of doweling with one-inch or so nails sticking up. He moved them around! So they tied them together with string. He still moved them. Their latest effort is to put a net over the top to stop him sleeping there. It would be funny except cats are creatures of habit and he will probably still try to sleep there ... even though he comes home with puncture marks in his stomach from the nails!"

A tough start in life...

Americans are naming their children ever-more bizarre names. The US Social Security names register of 2011 shows that while the most popular names were Jacob and Mason for boys and Sophia and Isabella for girls, there were seven boys named "Audi", and five girls named "Moo". Spoonerisms are also popular: Five children were named "Aunisty", five "Honestii" and six "Onesty". There are also five crawling around the US with "Corleone" as their first name, and five called "Capone". So who wants to be their Godfathers? (Source: Yahoo)

Reasonable grounds for divorce

English divorce law requires couples prove adultery or abandonment or "unreasonable behaviour". One woman's petition blamed her husband's insistence that she speak and dress only in Klingon. Another husband objected to the "malicious" preparation of his most hated dish (tuna casserole), another spouse had communicated only through Post It notes for the past 15 years. Another was a compulsive TV channel surfer, and one poor person was married to someone who insisted a pet tarantula reside in a glass case beside the marital bed. (Source: News of the Weird)

Snail mail from 50 years ago

A reader writes: "I have found two letters, dated 1963 and 1964. They were found in a box of stuff returned to our office in Tauranga and are addressed to Miss Ann McLean. There is a sender on the top of the letter, so I believe it was sent from Vincent Ave in Remuera and is signed ... love granddad. Please help me find someone who knows Ann, her grandfather or a family member who may want these letters." Please contact Sideswipe for more information.