Sideswipe

Flaming good deal in a recent Photo Lab ad.

It turns out the makers of Brokeback Mountain are not the only ones who think cowboys are frequently secretly fond of each other. Country music icon Willie Nelsonhas recorded a song with exactly that title, complete with lyrics like "What did you think all them saddles and boots was about?" The song was written more than 20 years ago by songwriter Ned Sublette but was largely unknown until Nelson, who contributed a song to the Brokeback Mountain soundtrack, decided to release it this week for download on iTunes. "The song's been in the closet for 20 years," Nelson said in a statement. "The timing's right for it to come out." Nelson, whose hits include My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys, sings in the new song: "A small town don't like it when a cowboy has feelings for men, and I believe to my soul that inside every man there's the feminine." Another verse goes: "The cowboy may brag about things that he's done with his woman. But the ones who brag loudest are the ones who are most likely queer." The Dallas Morning News said the song had a personal connection for Nelson because his longtime tour manager, David Anderson, revealed his homosexuality to the singer two years ago.

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Good news. TVNZ is bringing back Close to Home, only it's not the 70s local soap which was a finishing school for a generation of screen actors. No, it's another legal drama from Jerry Bruckheimer, who gave us the various CSIs and movies like Pearl Harbor. Starting on March 1, it stars "Jennifer Finnigan as Annabeth Chase, an aggressive young prosecutor who is determined to maintain her perfect conviction record after having her first child". And it's screening on TV One, the channel some of our elders want to wind the clock back on.

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Another embarrassing moment (one that doesn't involve being nude): In the late 70s Corinne McLaren was riding her motorbike on the Southern Motorway when it ran out of petrol. She used the emergency phone and a traffic officer arrived. As he was about to pour petrol into the tank, he asked her to hold his hand. She thought it strange but figured the blustery weather might be causing an unsteady hand. She reached out and took the officer by the hand. "Not my hand!" he exclaimed. "My hat!"

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A hilarious anecdote from The Student Doctor Network, a forum where young doctors share stories of patient stupidity. A doctor writes: "Never, ever, under any circumstances iron while less than fully clothed. And for God's sake, don't use a rather rickety card table with a layer of folded towels on it instead of a proper ironing board if you tend to be, um, vigorous in your ironing whilst you have body parts swinging in the breeze. Because it might necessitate hobbling into the ER with a second degree burn and putting down on the paperwork that you are here because "I ironed my man part". (Spotted on David Farrar's site Kiwiblog)