Sideswipe: Dec 30: No underwear in space

Insecure load? Nah, I live in West Auckland. Photo / Supplied

Close to boiling point with her son

Margaret writes: "I had a lovely day at the beach today, and came home to find that my son had noticed that my carefully nurtured swan-plant seedlings were looking a bit dry, so decided to water them for me. He didn't allow for the fact that the hose had been coiled up in the sun all day and the water he sprinkled on my plants was close to boiling point, I suspect by the state of them when I arrived home."

Don't throw drink in the drink

"To the young guys in the tinnie at Mathesons Bay on the 28th," writes Linda. "My kids swam out to the pontoon and dove down to collect the beer bottles you dropped over the side, so you won't slice your feet next time you swim there! (PS: thanks to the guy on the paddle board who got you to slow down when speeding among the swimmers in the bay)."

Arsenal of guns blows cop away

A Untied States gun find prompted a flabbergasted sheriff in rural Chesterfield County, South Carolina to say: "This has completely changed our definition of [what constitutes] an 'ass-load' of guns." Brent Nicholson, 51, had been storing more than 7000 firearms in his home and a storage building on his property. Every room of the house of was stacked with weapons -- it took four tractor-trailer trips to haul everything away, with the help of 100 law-enforcement officers. Nicholson also had 500 chainsaws, at least 250 taxidermied deer, elk, and alligator heads, and more. (Via Weird Universe).

Why Princess Leia went commando: George Lucas once famously told Star Wars actress Carrie Fisher "there is no underwear in space", she has revealed. Photo / Supplied

Thank you to GI family

Dion would like to say an enormous thank you to the family from Glen Innes who helped him out after he was assaulted on Tamaki Drive on Monday night. "If you had not been there, who knows what may have happened. Happy new year to your family and thank you!"