Sideswipe

Bellissima: A supermarket puts a Latin twist on a Kiwi favourite.

The Police issued the following press release yesterday: "Location of incident: Eastern Beach. Incident type: Suspicious object found ... Only matter of interest was a report from a person walking on Eastern Beach that they had found what appeared to be a set of severed male genitalia, including penis and testicles. Police attended and inspected the object which turned out to be some form of marine life. No further action is anticipated."

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Police in Thames Valley, England, have set up a points system they say will help officers prioritise their work. The goal is for each officer to amass at least 200 points a month. They'll get 10 points for stopping a drunk driver or arresting a rapist. Pulling someone over for not wearing a seat belt or talking on a phone while driving must be half as important, because that will get five points. And catching a shoplifter brings just two points.

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Andrew Stevenson writes: "While you're (kind of) on the subject of ghetto/youth slang, I was wondering what the following phrases meant as they seem to frequent my grandson's Eminem, Snoop Dogg and Dr Dre records: To 'roll on doves' ... To 'rock Prada' ... To 'throw bows'."

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Mark Henrickson, a senior lecturer in social work at Massey University, adds to the discussion on the word "queer". "I am the project leader of the Lavender Islands study that was carried out last year. With 2269 participants from all over the country, this study is the largest strengths-based study of lesbian, gay and bisexual persons in New Zealand. One of the questions we investigated was what people call themselves. We found the following:

Gay 43.7 per cent
Lesbian 30.1 per cent
Homosexual 9.1 per cent
Bisexual 8.3 per cent
Queer 5.3 per cent
All others 3.5 per cent

So you can see that while the mavens at the Ministry of Education may be reclaiming the word 'queer', it is far from widely accepted among LGBs in NZ, and should be used only with the greatest caution."

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A state-of-the-art swimming pool for dogs has been opened by the King of Thailand. The pool at Bangkok's Kasetsart University will provide therapy for sick and injured dogs. It has been named after the King's favourite pet, Suvarnachad, a stray he rescued from the streets. A book written about Suvarnachad, and charity T-shirts picturing the royal pet, raised $72,000 to help finance the facility. "The pool will serve for the physical rehabilitation of dogs suffering from arthritis and neurological diseases," said Viroj Impitak, Kasetsart University president.

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A reader writes: "Reclaiming words is easy if you put your mind to it. I'm busy rescuing 'gay' from its hijackers. Example: Noel Coward wasn't gay, he was homosexual; his plays and songs were gay. And I routinely refer to the Prime Minster as "Mrs Davis".

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Seems the Ministry of Youth Development's list of youth words published in Sideswipe last week is already out of date ... James (22) from Papakura writes: "Nobody says phat anymore. Chur bro."