Sideswipe: Boy racer

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Suzuki with ... er, add-ons spotted in Browns Bay by Martin Adlington.

No way to train your kids

Joshua writes: "To the father and his three children I saw outside McDonald's while travelling through Matamata on the weekend. It's probably not the best idea to encourage your kids to lie down on the train tracks and then to take half a dozen photographs of them doing so. There are easier ways to get rid of your kids and the photographic evidence would just aid the police."

Jacket rustlers in neighbourhood

"Our little Jack Russell went for a short walk to visit neighbours in Herne Bay on Thursday morning," writes Jo. "He returned 10 minutes later minus his very smart jacket (brown with beige trim secured by two very strong Velcro belts) and his collar and new red council registration tag. There really is no way that he could pull the jacket off himself. Is this the ultimate crime or just a desperate dog owner?"

Minister puts her foot in it

Romanian Tourism Minister Elena Udrea turned up in a flood-devastated town of Saucesti with boxes of slinky black footwear. She said they were intended to cheer up women who had lost everything. But one woman in the town said: "I would like to see her try walking over a mud-filled road in high-heel shoes." The eastern town was hit by severe floods which killed 22 people across Romania and destroyed crops, bridges and hundreds of homes. Udrea said the shoes were part of 20 tonnes of aid she had brought to the town. She added : "Women appreciate the chance to be elegant and to not have to wear Wellington boots any more." (Source: DailyRecord.co.uk)

Bite put on rattler-man

An Idaho man who authorities say had 25 Western rattlesnakes in a large bucket in his apartment has been issued with two misdemeanour citations by the state's Department of Fish and Game. Officials say Terry Brian Teeter had as many as 32 snakes but he gave some away and ate two others. The 38-year-old Teeter says he was unaware a licence is needed to hunt rattlesnakes in Idaho. He says he also didn't know that there's a state limit of four rattlers a year. Teeter says he was trying to find a buyer for the snakes and had contacted a Utah research centre that milks snakes for venom.

Kiwi not endemic to NZ

Siegfried writes: "New Zealand forgot to register 'Kiwi' so anybody can use it, unlike the word Champagne. We are still illegally using many registered names such as Parmesan. Luckily the cheese is so bad and we are such a little country that nobody takes any notice."