Sideswipe

From the burning questions file: When people put their rubbish bins out, they place them so they do not block garages and driveways. So why do the collectors leave them in driveways or in front of garages when they have emptied them?

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Forget about the money, Aucklanders are showing their love. This weekend the Buckland Building in Britomart will be covered with thousands of love letters penned by people smitten with all kinds of things. If you want to share your love, the people at www.loveletters.net.nz are waiting on the juliet balcony. Here's a random selection:

* Dear New Zealand, I have loved you since the first day I set eyes on you 23 years ago. I love you for your prettiness, your joy and laughter and just that air about you that you have. When I am overseas, within two days I am crying to see you again. You may never know how I feel about you, but YOU are in my heart
Forever Pommie Kiwi

* I think you're as rockin' as a bowl full of jelly on the back of a truck bouncing along a Cambodian motorway.

* Dear Miss Nandan, thank you for teaching me last year. It was grate bing with you.

* Darling Cindi, Loving you for over 35 years has given me joy and happiness. Joy for all the times I look at you and think how lucky I am. Happiness on those many occasions when we have achieved together what we want in life. Between us we have created a marvellous family. You are valued more than you can ever imagine. Your loving husband Bruce

* Dear Mum and Dad, Thank you for being nice to me by spending money and taking me places. Thank you for giving me hugs, and buying me games to play on the Xbox. But most of all thank you for loving me very much. Love Trent.

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Be on guard for the "republican propaganda" being shown on the state broadcaster on March 3, says the Monarchist League. Just before His Camilla-ness arrives in New Zealand, TVOne is to screen Should Prince Charles ever be King of New Zealand? The royalist League questions the "appropriateness of the timing of this programme and its format and provocative title". Dr Noel Cox of the league says: "If this is to be the approach taken by TVNZ under its charter, I look forward to a similar programme asking whether New Zealand should abolish Parliament (to be aired two days before the general election)."

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University starts this week and next, but it's not all archaic literature and binary codes. A Vatican-linked university is offering classes in exorcism and black magic. Rome's Pontifical Academy is concerned Satanism is taking hold among Italy's youth, and concerned parents are asking for special courses to be taught to priests. "It's a more spontaneous and hidden phenomenon, a problem of loneliness and isolation, a problem of emptiness, that is fulfilled by the values of Satanism," says teacher Carlo Climati, a specialist on youth culture and Satanism.

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The Vatican in 1999 issued its first new guidelines since 1614 for driving out devils.

Pope John Paul II believes in the devil despite scepticism in the Western world about the traditional binary opposition of heaven and hell.He described him as a "cosmic liar and murderer". (Source: Skynews.com)

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Cher might have thought she was too far away for people to notice, but the world's entertainment media has picked up on that fact that during her Auckland concert this week she branded fellow pop divas J-Lo and Britney Spears as "hos" . The New York Post says that a spokesman for the slighted pair has said in return: "For someone who has had her fair share of bad press, it is surprising she would comment on two women she hardly knows."