Sideswipe: 100% Pure Mining

A reader writes: "That very nice picture on the Tourism New Zealand website, with the lake in the background and the 100 per cent Pure logo above it, was created by mining/sluicing 100 odd years ago. It's the Blue Lake in St Bathans, Central Otago. Don't you think that's ironic given the argument over mining versus New Zealand's "pure" reputation? Maybe this shows they can co-exist?"

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This year's winner of the oddest book title has gone to Crocheting Adventures with Hyperbolic Planes, by mathematician Daina Taimina. The 32nd annual award is run by The Bookseller, a British trade magazine. Taimina, who teaches at Cornell University in New York, says the book details how she uses crocheting to create hyperbolic planes in which lines curve away from each other instead of running parallel. Other finalists were:

* Afterthoughts of a Worm Hunter.
* What Kind of Bean is This Chihuahua?
* Collectible Spoons of the Third Reich.
* Governing Lethal Behaviour in Autonomous Robots.
* The Changing World of Inflammatory Bowel Disease.

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A knife-wielding man was arrested in what police called a "meat massacre" at a supermarket in Indiana. Anthony Coffman used a hunting knife to cut through meat packages, throwing open containers of raw beef on the floor. He then poured dog food over some of the meat in the hope of contaminating it so it couldn't be sold. He told police he is a vegetarian and gets upset when others consume beef. (Source: TheIndyChannel.com)

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Catherine Dodson empathises with the owners of the "fruit fiend" beagle: "We have to compete with two German shepherds who, not satisfied with eating the macadamia nuts that fall from the tree, carefully pick the nuts from the branches, peel off the outer husk, break the incredibly hard shell and eat the inner nut!"

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In response to the Melbourne fashion designer refusing to design clothes larger than a size 14 because it endorses an unhealthy lifestyle, a reader writes: "I presume she'll be doing the same thing at the other end of the spectrum and not producing clothes in sizes 00, 0, 2 and 4? Seriously, body size and body health are different things."

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Comments in Sideswipe about how phone books are becoming redundant drew this response from "the team at Yellow": "We acknowledge a small but growing number of people are expressing an interest in no longer receiving phone books. In New Zealand, our research shows that 83 per cent of Kiwis believe that it is important or extremely important that the phone book is still delivered."

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See today's Herald cartoon