Sideswipe

Ellen Pompeo. Picture / Reuters

Defamer.com wonders about Ellen Pompeo, who plays Meredith on Grey's Anatomy: "What makes the TV physician's white lab coat seem like a tarp thrown over a broom?" Then a reader of the LA gossip site reports a sighting of her at a fast-food restaurant with three friends and watches her ... gorge herself? No, she has a "big fat plate of nothing".

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A woman who rents a two-bedroom house in Pt Chevalier for herself and and her four children aged between 4 months and 8 years, is experiencing some refurbishment, courtesy of her landlord. Work began, conveniently during the school holidays, on upgrading the kitchen and adding a deck. Which is all very well and good, but the tenant's more immediate concerns about the property have fallen on deaf ears. The tenant was hoping the property could be fenced, because her toddler keeps ending up on the road, and the leak in the roof which has blackened the ceiling of a bedroom with mildew really needs fixing. Her baby had to go to hospital several times with respiratory illness. Now the builders have downed tools without blocking up the gaping holes to the great outdoors, leaving the distressed woman with four sick children. The Landlord? Housing New Zealand.

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A truck driver was driving along on the highway. A sign comes up that reads, Low Bridge Ahead. Before he knows it, the bridge is right ahead of him and he gets stuck under the bridge. Cars are backed up for miles. Finally, a police car arrives. The cop gets out of his car and walks to the truck driver, puts his hands on his hips and says, "Got stuck, huh?" The truck driver says, "No, I was delivering this bridge and ran out of gas." (Source: Reader's Digest)

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Joanne Chaplow has a child at Remuera Primary School and recently discovered that only 80 per cent of school fees have been paid for this year. This is consistent with previous years. She writes: "The majority of that remaining 20 per cent can well and truly afford to pay, as you would expect in an affluent suburb, but choose not to, relying on the good old excuse that fees are a donation only. Remuera Primary is a Decile 10 school and receives significantly less Government funding than a Decile 1 school, so the onus falls back on the school to raise these funds by other means. The funds the school raises through fees are then used to pay every-day operating expenses, so they can continue to provide an excellent standard of education and maintain optimum class sizes. So, to all those tight-fisted and selfish Remuera Primary School parents out there who have not paid your children's school fees, why don't you all put your hands in your pockets and pay up? Your children attend a fantastic school and if everyone pays all the children benefit."