Sideswipe

So that's why they call them lockers

Beth Houlbrooke of Warkworth snapped the above picture last Saturday on the Fullers ferry to Rangitoto. She thought it odd considering safety announcements that were made on board including where to find lifejackets in an emergency. Chief executive officer for Fullers Douglas Hudson says lifejackets are stored under every seat in the main cabin and "a supply of extra life jackets (as shown) are stored on the outside deck". The locker is secured at night so they don't get nicked and the crew are required to unlock them each morning. Hudson says this story has given them the chance to "reiterate with staff the required procedure".

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A reader has a staggering statistic of the correlation between crime and hooded sweatshirts. It makes sobering reading. He writes: "What on earth is wrong with all these people who believe they are singled out for wearing hoodies? HELLO! Of course you are ... 80 per cent of the crime committed today is by those who choose to wear a hoodie ..."

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Malcolm Walker says hoodies are what leather jackets were in his day. He writes: "Nothing much changes. Twenty years ago myself and a friend were stopped and surrounded by a police patrol in Herne Bay as we were walking to a fancy dress party dressed as bikies. Pointing out that the two chapters written on our jackets were 'Anglican' and 'Remuera' made no difference and we were cautioned and reluctantly set loose again".

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This year the traditional Irish feast of corned beef and cabbage may be off the menu. Catholics generally abstain from meat on Fridays during Lent and yes, today is St Patrick's Day and a Friday. What to do? Risk sinful consumption of stringy salty meat, or pour the vats of Guinness into an unlined stomach? Never fear, Catholic Church leaders across America are bending the rules by granting a meat dispensation to their parishioners. At least 67 of the country's nearly 200 dioceses provide such dispensations. However, there is always a catch. Some are insisting those who take up the dispensation give up something else in exchange, "like beer", said one.

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Yesterday a reader regaled me with how accurate her stars were in the last NZ Woman's Weekly and heaped praise on the compiler of the astrology pages. I suggested this may have been a coincidence, and asked if the Herald predictions were similar, but she was having none of it and suggested I was too cynical. I then offered the idea that since she had read her stars at the start of the week, maybe they made her suggestible to them and subconsciously made those things happen. Unconvinced, she asked me if I was a Taurus. No, I explained, I just didn't buy into something that believes your entire personality is defined by which month your parents had the most productive sex, and I haven't heard from her since.