Sideswipe: March 16: Special attention

Flash cars get special attention at the lights in West Auckland. Photo / Supplied

Beware the impregnating office chair

This Trade Me listing for a female fertility chair, which looks a lot like a bog-standard blue office chair, cracked Annabel up. It reads: "This chair has amazing powers to help women become pregnant. The last three staff members that have sat at this chair and worked at Big Brothers Big Sisters Christchurch have become pregnant. Lady No1 became pregnant after 1 year of sitting on this chair. Lady No2 became pregnant after just 5 weeks of sitting on this chair. And Lady No3 became pregnant after the short time of 4 weeks on this chair. As you can see this chair's powers are increasing over time! We would advise caution if you are only in the thinking stage of becoming a parent as who knows what could happen to the next person who sits here ... pregnant in two weeks? Twins? Triplets? Its powers are out of our control!"

Kiwi through and through

Hairy Maclary from Donaldson's Dairy. Photo / Supplied

"I grew up with Hairy Maclary from Donaldson's Dairy," writes Reddit user Trilby2. "I think we are the only country (maybe Australia?) that uses the term 'dairy' to refer to a 'corner store/shop' ... These books must be majorly misunderstood in other parts of the world. I'm not too sure why we call them dairies. Maybe because we are a big exporter of dairy?" Another Reddit user eminentmolecule comments: "I read these books as a kid and now I read them to my kids and I absolutely thought Hairy Maclary was a farm dog. I am freaking out here."

Spider stuck in a time warp

In 1932, long before the internet, a spider achieved overnight celebrity status. One day in Barberton, Ohio, Louise Thompson noticed a "tiny black dot" moving across the face of her alarm clock. Closer examination revealed a spider between the face of the clock and the glass. It was trying to spin a web between the minute and hour hands but, as the hands moved, the web broke. The next morning the spider was still there, trying to build its ill-fated web. And it remained there the day after, and the day after that. Neighbours grew interested and on December 7 the media arrived and began providing daily details of the spider's adventures. By this time the spider had grown to the size of an ordinary house spider, and the hands of the clock were covered with fine threads. The clock and its eight-legged prisoner were taken to the University of Akron where a biologist attempted to unravel the mystery of how the spider was surviving without a food source. The local Humane Society declared this a case of arachnid cruelty and allowed one week for study at which point the spider would be released. Alas the spider died and obituaries ran in many newspapers. (The clock survived to tick again). Read more here...

Local: What Kind of Kiwi are you? Take TVNZ's Kiwimeter survey and find out. (I'm a Globalist, apparently, but then regular Sideswipe readers know that already). Read about it here. And take the test here.

Picture this: An Australian newsreader's blouse created a rather unfortunate optical illusion...

Read this: If the entire human race lived as densely populated as New York City, we could all live in New Zealand...

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