Sideswipe: Sept 20: Modern toilet sign

Toilet sign. Photo / Supplied

Hillary spotted this sign at Kings Garden Centre in Forrest Hill: "It sure puts you 'in the mood'!" she says.

Surprise packages in post

When the parcel post service was introduced in 1913 in the United States, at least two children were sent by mail. With stamps attached to their clothes, they rode with railway and city carriers to their destination. The Postmaster General quickly issued a regulation forbidding the sending of children in the mail. (Source: www.kottke.org)

Speedo exit just a shame

Rugby fan Richard was at the Ireland v Australia game and witnessed what he thought was unnecessary heavy-handedness by security at Eden Park. "Three young Wallaby fans stripped down to Speedos and surf-lifesaving helmets early into the game. Good on them; given the temperature, they were much braver than me. The crowd got into it; plenty of Irish fans had their photos taken with the intrepid trio, all good banter. Just before halftime, security and police arrived and simply hooked them. No 'Put your shirts on, lads', no 'Can you stop having so much fun with the other fans', no 'See how NZ can put on a good-natured RWC'. Just gone. Evicted. Despite the pleas of the Irish and Wallaby fans around them. I was astonished." (Source: Russell Brown's Hard News)

More super-power tales

"I said/thought it and it happened" stories: 1) Jan writes: "Oriental Bay, reading in sun, watched a helicopter going by over harbour with large bundle of builders' rubbish cradled in rope sling ... Wondered what would happen should the load become loose and drop ... which it forthwith did! Between two beaches, a fountain, two rafts and numerous swimmers - missed everything." 2) Janine writes: "When I was a child ... Dad was trying to persuade us he was telling the truth about something ... [He] said dramatically, 'May God strike me down if I am telling a lie!' That instant, a huge thunderclap rang out and we all looked at each other in terrified awe, then fell about laughing - it must be a lie!"

You wrinkle in water even if dead

Dr Lloyd Denmark, who has worked as a Government forensic pathologist in New Zealand and Britain, writes: "Wrinkling of skin of hands and feet is a well-recognised sign of immersion in water (cold or hot, salt or freshwater). You don't have to be alive on entry, so don't need an active nervous system - it occurs also in bodies dumped in water. Any forensic pathologist worth his salt will tell you this."

Call out for slain soldier's rellies

Bill Hamilton has a large old photo of a soldier from World War I captioned: Lance Corporal R. Sutton, G Squadron, 6th Reinforcements. Killed in action August 4th 1916. It was behind a painting "on the wall of a house we owned in Palmerston North", he says. "Would love to find the family connection and return."