Sideswipe: May 19: Something's missing

Sign writing flub for Burnsco Marine and Leisure in Christchurch.

Sponge cake to the rescue
"My dad decided to stew some feijoas," writes Tracy. They were taking so long he turned up the heat and went to do the dishes. Mum comes out to a pot boiling over, turns it off. She tells dad to get a large sponge to clean it up. Dad pops out and returns with a large sponge and duly sets it to soaking up the spilled feijoa. Mum walks in, takes one look, cracks up laughing and says "I meant a dish cloth type sponge NOT a sponge cake!" It worked so dessert was sponge cake with feijoa soaked in and cream!"

Goldfish elevated above humans
The average human's attention span is ... oh look, a bird! According to scientists, the age of smartphones has left humans with such a short attention span even a goldfish can hold a thought for longer. Researchers surveyed 2000 participants in Canada and studied the brain activity of 112 others using electroencephalograms. The results showed the average human attention span has fallen from 12 seconds in 2000, or around the time the mobile revolution began, to eight seconds. Goldfish, meanwhile, are believed to have an attention span of nine seconds. (Source: Presurfer)

Chicken cutlets by gender

German company Friki have manufactured two contrasting chicken cutlets, one "For Him" and one "For Her".The male's cutlet is hot and spicy, while the woman's one is mild. Charlotte Haunhorst believes the whole controversy has been concocted by Friki as a media ploy, although she confesses to irritation when she orders a fatty breakfast and it's assumed that the bacon was ordered by her male companion.

(Source: Dangerous Minds)

Chopper owner wanted
A reader writes: "Around lunch time on Sunday a small remote controlled helicopter dropped from the sky in Mt Albert and landed on our shed roof! Doesn't seem to be damaged. If the owner/operator would like it returned, please contact Sideswipe."

A grateful husband writes in
Les Shrubb of Gulf Harbour writes: "How do you say thanks to the young woman who answered my 111 call when I found my wife unconscious on our bedroom floor? Who kept me on the phone, instructing me in what to do until the first responders turn up. How do you say thanks to the St John teams that stabilised my wife first on the trip to North Shore Hospital then to Auckland's cardio thoracic unit? I will never be able to find their names. Then how do you say thanks to the many many people who were involved in the emergency surgery and consequent nursing and care? To you all I would like to say thanks for saving my wife's life on what turned out to be a dramatic Mothers' Day."

Picture this: A mask of your own face? Check out Freak Masks....

Local: An Auckland blogger is going to watch old episodes of Coro starting in April 1976 and write about the experience. So simple, yet so brilliant. Her first post on Coronation Street of Old reads: "It occurs to me as the first scene (between Rita and Mavis) from April 5, 1976 comes on screen that I was only 18 months old at the time this screened, yet I still know who these people are. Many things are familiar and yet a lot of it is rather strange. The Rovers and the rooms of the houses seem much larger than they do in later years (perhaps the set designers got a bit more realistic about the size of a two up two down terraced house and a local pub). Every external shot is simultaneously grotty, brown, gritty and windy. I dimly remember the 70s, and this seems completely appropriate. (That's the thing retro stuff like That 70s Show gets totally wrong: pockets of colourful grooviness were very small. Everything was brown and there was a shitload of macrame and strong-assed cigarettes.) As Deirdre and her first husband Ray walked along by the world's most hideous canal, I couldn't have blamed either of them if they had flung themselves into it. No wonder punk happened." More here...

Video: Bottlenose dolphins surfing off Esperance, south Western Australia and filmed by a drone...

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