KEY POINTS:
A TVNZ viewer complains that screening Hamish Keith's arts programme The Big Picture at 10 on a Sunday night and The Book Show on a Saturday morning is madness, and gets this response from TVNZ: "Careful research and ratings info indicates that approximately 7 per cent (up to 10 per cent) of our Kiwi population tune into something like this programme. In my eyes, this means that out of all our viewers, only 7-10 per cent are discerning and intelligent! As we (rather annoyingly) are a commercial station, we can not justify putting on these wonderful programmes in primetime or even semi-primetime."
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A 16-year-old high school student from Iceland decided to call the White House and got through to President Bush's secretary. Introducing himself as lafur Ragnar Grmsson, the actual President of Iceland, the teenage Vfill Atlason found what he believed to be President George W. Bush's allegedly secret telephone number and phoned, requesting a private meeting with him. "I just wanted to talk to him, have a chat, invite him to Iceland and see what he'd say," Atlason told ABC News. He claims he was passed on to several people, each quizzing him on President Grmsson's date of birth, where he grew up, who his parents were and the date he entered office. "It was like passing through checkpoints," he said. "But I had Wikipedia and a few other sites open, so it was not so difficult really." Atlason alleges Bush's private secretary told him to expect a call back from the President on Monday. Instead, the police showed up at his home in Akranes, near Reykjavik, and questioned him under orders from US officials to "find the leak". He eventually explained where he'd found the number.
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Mike Kensington writes: "On a recent trip to Steve Irwin's Australia Zoo my 4-year-old son Sam explained how they get the crocodiles into the zoo. "First they give them some dead medicine, then carry them to the zoo. Then they give them some live medicine." To which I asked, "But how do they get the medicine in?" He explained, "With a very, very long spoon".
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Responding to the Coca-Cola Christmas in the Park big screen spelling "error" pointed out in yesterday's Sideswipe, a number of readers wrote in to explain that The First Nowel is a traditional English carol and is the correct, original spelling. Sideswipe concedes, yet pleads the "common usage this century" argument.
Today's Webpick: International sex symbol Louis Favreau pitches his new album filled with love songs only a REAL man would sing. Watch it here.
These are the very best online videos from Ana's online magazine Spare Room.
