Sideswipe

The dangerous backblocks of Oz.

Thin blue line: Who says the police are under-resourced? A reader sent in this example of overkill. "I was attending, with my wife, a birthday party in West Auckland that took place in a garage at the back of a property. There were about 30 people max, no teenagers and no noisy cars. The music was a bit loud but no pounding bass sound. There were a few grandmothers there, some singing, a barbecue, no one was drunk and all were good- humoured with nobody on the footpath or road. This was a low-key Saturday night party and at 11pm a council noise control officer turned up and took the gear. There were no problems, just some good-natured banter. The guests then carried on singing. But here's the story: there were NINE uniformed officers in attendance. I counted them. The police could spare nine officers at 11 on a Saturday night?"

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Toe the line: Our "toe the line" query has prompted dozens of readers to write in: Here is another suggestion about the origin of the saying: "When Parliament was sitting hundreds of years ago, Members of Parliament attended wearing their swords. When the debates became rather heated, it was not uncommon for them to draw their swords to settle the argument. In an effort to control this unruly behaviour, two red lines were drawn on the floor of Parliament. One in front of the Government members and the other before the opposition members. The lines were two sword lengths apart. If the debate prompted members to cross the line towards the opposition, the Speaker would order the offender to 'toe the line'. Meaning get back to your side of the line and behave yourself."

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More toeing: "In the days of sailing ships, the command 'toe the line' was regularly given in the British Royal Navy. When the crew was assembled to hear the captain speak or for some other occasion, it was customary to stretch a line (or rope as we would call it now) across the deck. The crew, upon receiving the command, would move forward and touch the line with their toes, thereby producing a formation. This was done because the British Navy was forever in fear of mutiny, and large groups were not encouraged to move toward their officers without a recognised command."

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Getting toey: A reader who sent in his theory on "toe the line" was more fascinated by an item about the Auckland Festival. "A better question is how someone threw a Punctuation Festival without me knowing. Sounds like a riot." Any idea what one does at a Punctuation Festival?

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Kids at the movies: And in the era of debates over child nudity comes this response: "A few years ago my wife and I were asked to leave a movie showing at the Village Broadway that was rated R16. The problem was our that daughter, who accompanied us to the movie, was underage. By quite a lot. She was three weeks old at the time. We protested to the manager that this was a tiny little infant, sound asleep in her car seat. We explained that a three-week-old baby could hardly see beyond her nose, and the screen was a good 30m away. We offered to turn the seat around so she faced the rear of the theatre. We pointed out that she did not understand English. The arguments fell on a deaf ear. The child might somehow absorb the movie subliminally, we were told. So we were escorted out and given our money back."

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Snaky: Vets in Idaho have saved a 3.6m burmese python after it swallowed an electric blanket - with the electrical cord and control box. The blanket must have become tangled in the snake's rabbit dinner, owner Karl Beznoska said. He said he kept the blanket in the 27kg reptile's cage for warmth. "The prognosis is great," veterinarian Karsten Fostvedt said after a two-hour operation. It would have taken the python, named Houdini, six hours to swallow the blanket and specialists said it could have died without surgery. Houdini has been with Beznoska for 16 years.