Sideswipe: September 5: Christchurch Jacindamaniac

Brewery raises the bar for hygiene

A video for bartenders gives away an industry secret - how to tell whether your beer glass has been properly cleaned. The video, made by brewers MillerCoors, explains the difference between clean and "beer clean". Essentially, detergent residues can mess around with the taste of a beer that otherwise has been meticulously brewed, transported and stored in order to protect the flavour. The secret to telling if detergent, oil or other residues are on the glass (and it's not "beer clean") is by looking for bubbles that cling to the side, or the foam head goes down rapidly. The video explains that the way to check is by wetting the glass and shaking some salt into it. If the salt coats the inside of the glass evenly all over, your glass is "beer clean". If not, there are still oily or greasy deposits which will attract more salt. (Via Indy100)

More bacon trivia

The phrase "bringing home the bacon" has nothing to do with bacon. Back in the 12th century, the prior of the church at Little Dunmow in Essex, England, offered a "flitch" (or side) of bacon to any couples who could prove that after a year and a day of marriage they had "not wisht themselves unmarried again". These "marriage trials" are still held every four years in Great Dunmow, Essex. Though some people think this is the origin of the expression "bringing home the bacon", it appears to have a more recent history. "Bacon" has been a slang term for body (and by extension livelihood) since the 17th century, but the whole phrase seems to have first appeared in a 1906 news article about a boxing match between Joe Gans and "Battling" Oliver Nelson. The Post-Standard newspaper in New York reported: "Before the fight Gans received a telegram from his mother: 'Joe, the eyes of the world are on you. Everybody says you ought to win. Peter Jackson will tell me the news and you bring home the bacon."' Gans indeed won the fight. Whetherhe took home some actual bacon is not recorded.(Via Howthingswork.com)

The true definition of West

"Saw five horses galloping on Swanson Rd near the Challenge gas station in the early hours of Sunday," writes Sachdev Singh. "I assume they escaped from a nearby farm."

How to live wisely around your phones

"This essay [from The Book Of Life] knows we love our phones and would never want us to give them up, but it is also gently aware that these delightful gadgets bear a hidden cost. This is a text that aims to bring a little sanity to our closest, most intense and possibly most danger-laden technological relationship."

Broccoli as big as a tree

Spotted in Australia. Likely this is Melaleuca linariifolia. Here's one in flower at the Melbourne Botanical Gardens.

Profound stuff from kid

AMA stands for Ask Me Anything and its a question and answer session on Reddit usually with famous folk, like Obama, but a a 3-year-old boy from Texas called Caleb who is something of an oracle.

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