Sideswipe

Karen Hill-Male works in the Finance Department of the ASB and this week received this letter (above) along with $140 cold hard cash. The windfall has been donated to Starship.

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There has been much consternation over New Zealand's "man drought" this week, but thankfully AUT Professor Charles Crothers has done some number-crunching in the Auckland region. He found the percentage of single men 16 years and over is highest in the following areas: Auckland Central West (61pc), Newton (60pc) and Arch Hill (58pc), Ponsonby East (57pc), Kingsland (55pc), Papakura South (53pc), Parnell West (52pc), Newmarket (52pc), Pt Chevalier South (51pc). Some of the least attractive areas for husband-hunting are Drury, West Massey and Greenhithe (all 28pc), Kingseat (26pc) and Gulf Harbour (21pc). Professor Crothers also concluded that the highest concentrations seem to involve sailors, servicemen and prisoners. Grafton East, potentially an excellent stomping ground, has 75pc single men, but that is likely to be because of Mt Eden Prison.

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The problem of state-owned media: This from a Zimbabwe local newspaper which reported that the China Foreign Affairs University has conferred honorary professorship on President Robert Mugabe for his "contribution to diplomacy and international affairs as well as peace". 

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A reader writes: "I have just received a Personal First-Aid Kit from the mail-order company Innovations. It contains one motel soap and five sticking plasters. What a rip-off. There is a sucker born every day - me!"

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A 62-year-old Wisconsin woman, a retired teacher, has been found guilty of assaulting a federal aviation security staff member and faces a year in prison and $100,000 in fines. Phyllis Dintenfass was taken to a "secondary screening area" by a Transportation Security Administration supervisor Anita Gostisha, who then used the back of her hands to check the area beneath Dintenfass' breasts, provoking her to squeeze Gostisha's breasts back. Dintenfass claims that she had made repeated verbal efforts to tell Gostisha that she didn't want to be felt up. When the security person said that she wasn't feeling Dintenfass up, Dintenfass responded: "My husband has been feeling me up for 40 years. I know what it's like to be felt up."