Letters: Living in today's 'pretend world'

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Jim Adams (Letters, December 8) is right re bicycle bells being needed. Trouble is today like a lot of things once well made, they are mostly rubbish, produced cheaply as a pretend accessory. We now live in a pretend world with everything including clothing being a pretence instead of practical. Try buying a shirt with a pocket deep enough to hold a ballpoint pen. They are few and far between.

But back to bicycles. They once had mudguards front and rear with 12 inches of white paint on the rear and a red reflector in the middle of the paint. Also a bracket in the centre of the handlebars for a light.

That was once law and I don't ever remember a law change allowing these things to be no longer needed. Yet they are not available even for street bikes which now are rarer than hen's teeth. Mountain bikes are all the rage but the tyres are not suitable for our roads and footpaths. Once riding a bike on the footpath was illegal but not any more.

I once rode a bike to work and all I used was a pair of spring clips around my cuffs to keep them from catching in the chain. No lycra back then.

Maybe old people should have to have a bike bell on their walkers to warn selfish cyclists or yapping tourists they don't own the footpaths. They could then perhaps use the green corridor, as nobody else does.

A.J. MacKENZIE
Rotorua

Give it the sniff test

One of the many advantages of having lived many years ago is that our mothers taught us, at an early age, how to tell if foodstuff was "off" simply by smelling it, looking at it and - if really necessary - tasting it!

This ability came in very useful many years later because it meant we didn't have to throw away things just because the "sell-by" date was past or the "best before" had just arrived!

This is a very clever marketing ploy that had greatly increased the sale of goods that may otherwise have been kept in the cupboard or fridge a week or two longer and used up!

It is truly amazing the variety of products that now carry these "warnings". Even things that would not really matter if they were covered in a mould before you used them!

JIM ADAMS
Rotorua