Sideswipe

The Western Leader calls a spayed a spayed when it comes to low-income earners

Overheard on Saturday evening at the ZooMusic gig as the crowd awaited iconic Kiwi musician Don McGlashan and the Seven Sisters to take the stage, a young girl asking her father: "Dad, how long till Don Brash and his sisters are on?"

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The pythagorean triangle exam question in Friday's Sideswipe, asking the exam-sitter "where is X?" drew the attention of reader Dave Thompson. He says that despite not complying with the marking schedule, the answer was correct. "In view of the way the question is phrased, it may, in fact, be the ONLY correct answer. If the examiner wanted to know the value of X, he/she should have said so. Someone should offer the enterprising candidate a job."

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America's largest Catholic university is offering a new course in "lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered and queer studies". Assistant Professor Gary Cestaro of DePaul University in Chicago says, "Institutions of higher learning, even if they are Catholic, aren't spokespeople for the Vatican. Like any university, there should be room for free inquiry." (Source: Newsweek)

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Council gives with one hand and ... Paul Harvey shares another example of the Auckland City Council focus on revenue collecting in the lucrative inner city. He writes: "A number of tow trucks began towing cars parked on one side of Titoki St (within the Auckland Domain) on Saturday afternoon before the SkyCity Starlight Symphony concert. Signs had apparently been erected on Friday afternoon indicating that after a certain time on Saturday, cars that did not display the appropriate parking sticker would be towed away. The problem was that in an area on Titoki St that borders Parnell Lawn Tennis Club the signs had actually been erected within the trees and bush, making it impossible for the drivers of the offending vehicles to see them. This did not deter the parking wardens from calling in the tow trucks. At one stage there was heated debate between the wardens and vehicle owners that attracted the interest of the police, who advised the owners that they would support them in their efforts to avoid paying the fine (but I can't see any of the owners of towed vehicles recovering towing charges). As they left, the parking wardens were heard to say the signs weren't legal because they were placed too close together down the street.

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Gary Stewart responds to the "clarification" published yesterday about the Speights "Keep your back to the billboard, boy" sign: He writes: "So it was three years ago. I suppose that makes it all right then. If the on-to-it boys at Lion think three years is enough time to get over things then they must be absolutely stunned by the fuss over the Virgin Mary (2000 years dead) and the Prophet Muhammad ( 1400 years dead)."