Sideswipe

Police car lose control during the 2005 Dunlop Targa rally (see first article below).

The petrolheads from Ground-Sky photography couldn't believe their luck when, at the 2005 Dunlop Targa rally last month, somewhere near Bulls, a police car came blatting down the road and went through a fence while one of their photographers was in wait for the rally cars. Being the caring, sharing guys they are, they are offering you your very own 42x60cm copy for $8 - a great present for any petrolhead. Go to groundsky.co.nz (see link below).

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A worm tells us that now Judy Bailey has more time on her hands, the Ministry of Women's Affairs has been in touch. The ministry keeps a list of suitable female candidates to put forward for board vacancies, and Bailey is just the ticket, they say. Asked what boards she might be keen on, Bailey answered: "I'd quite like to be on the board of TVNZ. I could go through it like a dose of salts."

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There's some strange cosmic augury thing happening with the banners on the Hobson St building at the state broadcaster. First Judy Bailey was canned, when a NZ Idol banner read "Who will be next?" Then Ian Fraser got the hump and quit. The banner: "Not everyone survives the fall". Parliament decides to have an inquiry. The banner: "Rescue Me". Bill Ralston might be worried that TV One has a competition to win Sorting Out Billy. It's a novel by Jo Brand, the stand-up comic in British gameshow Nobody Likes A Smartass.

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Best letter to the editor ever: The October issue of Vanity Fair included a profile of Paris Hilton, including a chat with her younger sister Nicky, who asked the following question: "I'm 21 years old, I run two multimillion-dollar companies, I work my ass off. Like, what were you doing that was so f**king important at that age? I feel very accomplished for my age." A reader responded: "When I was 21, I was busy working toward my PhD in organic chemistry at the University of Minnesota. I was the first to synthesize the compound okadaic acid, shown to be the leading cause of breast cancer. Steven F. Sabes, Minnesota."