Sideswipe

Yesterday we asked how many police were needed to issue a traffic ticket. A reader sent in this photograph, taken in Northcote, as the answer.

I will never complain again about politicians keeping information secret. There was just way too much information in Prime's tell-all special on Helen Clark and Don Brash on Tuesday night. Clark likes to, umm, stroke Peter Davis. Brash fell in love at first sight and is still, two decades on, attracted to, and ummm, attractive, to his wife ... But sometimes the more mundane aspects of life reveal the most human side. Clark has no dishwasher but heats up old cups of tea in the microwave. And like wives all over the country, she obviously can't bear it when her husband insists on dressing himself. Who can blame her when Peter Davis wore a woolly jumper that looked like a llama had sat on him? Well, Clark can blame herself. She confessed to leaning out a train window in Peru two decades ago and bargaining for it.

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On the topic of love-ins, a love motel, complete with a heart-shaped mirror on the ceiling and a headboard resembling a doggy bone, has opened for amorous pooches in Brazil. The doggy love motel in Sao Paulo, South America's largest city, was inspired by the thousands of such establishments that rent rooms to Brazilian couples for four-hour periods. "I am absolutely certain this is the first one for dogs in the world," said Robson Marinho, a director at the Gang dos Bichos, or Gang of Animals, a pet shop. The dog motel, which opened this month, costs 100 reais ($60) for two hours. (Reuters)

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Chardonnay socialists: A new survey shows that Labour voters have a preference for white wine, National voters are more likely to sup on a pint of beer, Green voters have a noticeable taste for fish when dining out and New Zealand First voters are most likely to order lamb shanks off a restaurant menu.

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The survey by Frenzi Group found that Labour voters drink chardonnay more than any other beverage. So are we surprised?

But according to survey co-ordinator Steve Oakley: "This survey shatters the stereotype images that previously pigeon-holed Labour Party supporters as being beer drinkers, conservative voters as wine drinkers, New Zealand First supporters as the sherry-drinking blue-rinse set and Green Party supporters as all tofu and salad munchers.