Sideswipe

Opinion

Henry is an Australian who has been living in Aotearoa for 20 years, and although his allegiance is still "firmly across the ditch", he is astounded that New Zealand's win in the netball wasn't first up on One News. "The first story was about some refugee being kicked out of the country ages ago. The next was about political party polling (who gives a rat's) and I think I can safely speak for a large percentage of the country. Is it any wonder this country is so psychologically down in the dumps with this sort of reporting? A 1500m runner just made history the other night. Only Snell and someone else has achieved what this man did. The netballers have just won the last medal of the Games, against their oldest adversary ... I know TV has a format, I know that political parties are important to run the country, but why does the media doom merchants' focus on internal pessimistic bollocks take priority over celebrating New Zealand's fabulous achievements? I think all TV folk need to be on a serious dose of Prozac after watching tonight's news ... It was probably the most deflating evening I've had in ages ... Is it any wonder people are switching channels." Reply: Henry, mate. Settle, petal. Although a dose of happy pills may well aid television management in general, how do you propose the One News team could write the story of the game, cut together the highlights and get comment from a still-puffed Irene van Dyk in the fleeting minutes between the end of the live coverage of the Commonwealth Games netball final and their bulletin? Hmm?

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Prince is being sued for painting everything in his rented mansion purple. A basketball star and owner of the $70,000 a month Los Angeles pad recently sued the singer for painting the exterior of the house with purple striping, a "prince" symbol and the numbers 3121 - the title of Prince's new album. Other renovations in the publicity stunt included the laying of a purple monogrammed carpet in the master bedroom and plumbing and piping added in the downstairs bedroom for "water transfer for beauty salon chairs". Prince is expected to hold a private concert at the Hollywood property for album buyers who find a purple ticket inside their CD cases, like Willy Wonka did with his chocolate. (Source: thesmokinggun.com)

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By the way ... Has anyone out there received their Rolling Stones tickets?