Sideswipe

Extracurricular activities for all the middle-class boys not fortunate enough to be in Iraq. (Flyer from The Gun Store, Las Vegas).

The sundial outside the Remuera library has been corrected. Jim Sprott, who brought the matter to public attention in Sideswipe, would like to thank Auckland City Council staff and representatives from Remuera Heritage Trust. He can now sleep easy.

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A woman living in Germany is auctioning off her red Ferrari Enzo sports car and including a little extra in the package - herself.

The 26-year-old has invited bids on internet auction site eBay starting at €1.25 million ($NZ2.67 million). She said she was rich herself, liked her car and was looking for a man who could foot the bill for such a luxury. "Only a millionaire could afford such a car," said the woman, who gave her name as Leila and said she once worked as a singer in Syria. "I want a man who doesn't like me just for my money."

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The fact that the late Fred Hollows appears in the Bulletin magazine's list of the 100 most influential Australians is neither here nor there for The Fred Hollows Foundation, which happily sent out a press release trying to drum up a bit of PR on the back of it all. The Bulletin says: "Like many famous Australians, Hollows was born in New Zealand". This year Fred Hollows was also voted No 39 of 100 NZ History Makers on Prime. Surely you can't have it both ways?

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The folks who got to see the preview of blockbuster Superman Returns in its 3D version at the reopened Imax cinema in Queen St on Wednesday came out feeling dazed and underwhelmed by the whizzbang-ness of the big-screen experience. Much of the dialogue sounded as if it was being shouted through a pillow. And the 3D projection was out of whack too, meaning the 20 minutes of "immersive" viewing induced many a headache whether you had the special goggles on or not. But no one thought to stop the film and start again. In a press release yesterday, Village Skycity's chief executive Joe Moodabe said that there had been "teething problems" causing sound and blurred picture and that the cinema had "worked through the night" to fix the problem for the public screenings which started yesterday. It was a dubious restart for Imax which is getting a second wind with digitally enhanced 3D cuts of blockbusters. Funny thing was some of that muffled dialogue was from the late Marlon Brando, who played Superman's real dad Jor-El in the original 1978 film - his mumbling was bad enough in the original. As for Superman Returns itself, when it's in focus and you can hear what they're saying, apparently it's really good.