Sideswipe

Forcing veges down kids' throats, but not religion: VeggieTales, a popular Christian-themed series featuring Bob the Tomato and Larry the Cucumber, recently started airing on mainstream American TV, but with the many references to God edited out. The show's creator, Phil Vischer, says the show is Christian, should be Christian and he wouldn't have made the lucrative deal if he'd known about the edits. NBC says it didn't want to advocate any one religious point of view.

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What's in a name? An anonymous reader muses about the Ranfurly Shield - which was not called after its donor's name, but after one of his titles: Viscount Northland, Baron Wells of Dungannon, Knight of St Michael & St George, Bailiff Grand Cross of the Order of St John, Deputy Lieutenant of Ireland, Lord In Waiting to Queen Victoria, Officer of the Legion of Honour, Privy Councillor, Earl of Ranfurly and Governor of New Zealand, 1897-1904. To this day his title can cause emotional "Shield of Dreams" headlines. But his actual name was Uchter John Knox. You've got to wonder if the trophy would have sounded exciting had it been called the Uchter Knox Shield.

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Dr Phil's Inventions:

1. Talking about stuff.

2. Smiling through your tears.

3. Not beating your kids.

4. Going to the doctor when you have cancer.

5.Taking a good look in the mirror.

6.Christianity.

(Source: www.mcsweeneys.net)

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In July, says a Canadian press report, a Wal-Mart in Quebec received a bomb threat and immediately sent about 40 employees to look through the store to find the explosive. (Customers were allowed to leave, though, and ultimately, it was a false alarm.) (Source: News of the Weird)

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Following yesterday's story of the seized labradoodle, Liz de Kort says her local animal control officers north of the bridge also lack common sense. "Two years ago we received a visit from the local animal control officer advising us that our young fox terrier had nipped the next-door neighbours' son on the ankle and the family had made a formal complaint. The incident was recorded and our family pooch now has a criminal record. At the time we questioned the officer at length as we simply could not understand how this incident had occurred, considering the dog is not allowed off our property without one of us in tow (complete with leash and poo bag, of course). The officer was quick to inform us that the child admitted entering our property, coaxing the dog off the property, playing with and then teasing it until it nipped him on the ankle."

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Eva Longoria revealed on the Ellen DeGeneres Show that, in the wake of Marcia Cross, the cast of Desperate Housewives was told to avoid conceiving. Said Eva: "Well, no, you can [get pregnant] - it's just difficult because our work schedule is so crazy and you know Marcia is pregnant and so Marc Cherry came on the set and he was like, 'no more pregnancies this year ... they're really hard to write in'."