Sideswipe

Barbecue food cooked courtesy of the Holy Spirit for worshippers in Osprey, Florida.

Paul Clark, Professor of Chinese at Auckland Uni, takes issue with the National Bank's pocket diary for 2006. "It has a useful two-page listing of international dialling codes. Such important places as Sao Tome & Principe and Faroe Island are listed. Taiwan is there too, including the area code for Taipei, as is Hong Kong. Missing again for 2006 is China. Good to see the bank keeping up with the most dynamic economy in the world and a place that looms hugely (and positively) in all our futures."

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A reader writes: "To the nasty Xmas grinches who spoiled our family night out shopping at Botany Downs shopping centre, thanks a lot for clamping our car when we were parked in a disabled carpark with a mobility card because members of the public complained that we walked away from the car. Once again people's ignorance of chronically ill people shone through. When will it filter through that you don't need to be in a wheelchair to be disabled?"

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An exchange on the Aotearoa Ethnic Network mailing list about the racist posters in Wellington: "My anti-fascist Nazi-tracker friends inform me that the 'organisation' White Crusaders of the Racial Holy War behind the Wellington posters consists of two rather sad, lonely and incompetent boys. Don't fret." Then another respondent recalled that the last National Front demo comprised two men, two flags and a Thermos. "Remember everyone ... capture the Thermos and you take away their power. The descendants of Albion are nothing without a nice cup of warm tea."

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On December 17, 1944, the Japanese Army sent a 23-year-old soldier named Hiroo Onoda to the Philippines to join the Sugi Brigade. He was stationed on the small island of Lubang, about 120km southwest of Manila, and his orders were to lead the Lubang garrison in guerrilla warfare. As Onoda was departing to begin his mission, his division commander told him, "You are absolutely forbidden to die by your own hand. It may take three years, it may take five, but whatever happens, we'll come back for you. Until then, so long as you have one soldier, you are to continue to lead him. You may have to live on coconuts. If that's the case, live on coconuts! Under no circumstances are you to give up your life voluntarily." It turns out that Onoda was exceptionally good at following orders, and it would be 29 years before he finally laid down his arms and surrendered. (Read the full story on Damn Interesting)