One bloke - named John - accused us of being "woke" for saying we don't like smoke pollution in the suburbs.

"I suppose it had to come, a regional reporter writing like a Sydney inner city dweller wanting to spoil everyone's fun," John quipped.

That was pretty funny. We'll give him that one. [Alas, John, you'll never get us living down there with those Sydney snobs]

John made us giggle when he said our article reminded him of "all those woke PC [politically correct] types out there, just itching to change the world into a nice little sterile, synthetic place comfortable to them".

"Please spare the rest of us this cancel culture nonsense," he pleaded.

We responded with a dash of poetry: "Not woke, just hate smoke".

As for the cancel culture claim, whoa there John-boy! That's smoke and mirrors you're peddling, there.

For those who don't know, cancel culture is actually when people are ostracised for having a contentious opinion. The person, in question, is "cancelled" from the debate, as such. Worse still, some are "cancelled" from their jobs.

It's been happening a lot in the US, especially around issues of race and other socially sensitive topics. [No one's been cancelled for hating smoke pollution, yet]

People have been shunned and shamed often at the bidding of social media mobs, sometimes for making reasonable and intelligent, yet politically incorrect arguments.

Some have argued that cancel culture has gone too far and become a way of rejecting anyone you disagree with, or someone who did something you didn't like.

On that note, when you have an opinion, it's probably not a great idea to tell people to "put that in your pipe and smoke it".

But if you do happen to smoke it, don't blow the smoke our way.

We went to Woolworths to pick up a few things and noticed a small video of ourselves on the screen at the self-serve checkout.

We don't go to Woolies much, so we hadn't seen the little video before. Apparently they've been around for more than a year.

The assistant came over and subtly checked in our bag, as they tend to do, so we asked why the video was there.

Assistant: "A lot of people steal".

Us: "Hmm, how does a small video on the screen stop people from stealing?"

Assistant: [giggling] "It doesn't".

Woolworths has previously confirmed that the technology was a security measure.

Sounds like another one of those weird security measures that retailers take to try to prevent theft, without knowing whether it actually works.

We've observed before that criminals can beat bag checks. So why sweep all the innocent people up in a charade?

Australian activist Sally Rugg, executive director of Change.org, asked Woolworths last year on Twitter: "Can you tell me: why you're filming my face up-close while I do my shopping, where you're storing this footage, if you're linking it to my [credit card] details, if you're using facial recognition software to identify and/or track me?"

Woolworths replied that "the vision is not recorded or stored anywhere" and they don't use face recognition.

"It does help our team monitor the area and is designed as a deterrent."

A deterrent, hey? Sounds just like those bag checks that don't work either.

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