Sideswipe

"Hand over the carrots, me hearties." Speaking of unusual, this from a site which has numerous costumes custom-made for pet guinea pigs, including a bikini and a Christmas angel. How 'bout that?

"Hand over the carrots, me hearties." Speaking of unusual, this from a site which has numerous costumes custom-made for pet guinea pigs, including a bikini and a Christmas angel. How 'bout that?

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An open letter to a Lost Friend from a reader: "I tried, oh I really tried to be tolerant when you announced you were becoming a vegan, decided animals were more important than people and adopted an evangelical attitude to all things culinary. I used to love dining out with you, but now rarely suggest it. You have a new circle of like-minded mung-munching mates, an odd bunch of SAFE members who all smell like rotten onions and patchouli. I am so over your self-righteous, preachy, defensive stance when you deign to stoop from your high moral horse to eat with me. You ruin every eating experience: disdainfully eyeing the food, quizzing the surprised waiting staff about the ingredients in every item on the menu and, when given the tiniest opportunity, ranting on about how cruel/heartless/ignorant we lowly meat eaters are. I wish someone would give you and your lentil loving lot an island to live on with your tofu and vegetables and let the rest of us live in carnivorous bliss. People and human relationships make the world go round; animals are here to serve us, not vice versa."

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Spotted on the Northwestern Motorway about 11.30am Thursday; a police car with flashing lights that had just pulled over a shiny blue car with the licence plate: I SPEED.

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Redefining fame: Joanne Malin, a British television presenter for ITV, told a surely fascinated reporter all about her journalism career and its resulting celebrity, and dropped in that she was once recognised in a fish and chip shop in Mt Maunganui, New Zealand.

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The most unusual behaviour over Steve Crowe's hugely successful porn publicity campaign was the obviously aggrieved Tear Fund trying to leverage its own story by issuing a press release suggesting "Aucklanders with no interest in seeing boobs riding motorbikes can instead see bums put on toilet seats by buying a toilet gift card to allow a fly-free latrine to be built in a rural village in the developing world, dramatically improving the sanitation and health of that community". (Source: Scoop.co.nz)

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Stuart Simpson responds to David Read of Hospitality Management. "I would like to point out that under New Zealand law, if a person holds an international driver's licence on their arrival in NZ then they are deemed to hold a New Zealand driver's licence (subject to certain conditions). Therefore they would then satisfy the evidentiary requirements of 'proof of age'. I think that it is a little silly to simply refuse what any reasonable person would accept as a proof of age based on the fact that it doesn't state NZ driver's licence on the licence itself. However, I don't think anyone should expect the check-out operator to do anything other than follow the company policy, so maybe the company could review their policies and accept the international driver's licence."