Sideswipe

Sheep Magazine, "the voice of the independent flockmaster", is published in Wisconsin by Countryside Publications. Sister publications include the topical Backyard Poultry Magazine and the fascinating Dairy Goat Journal Magazine. True.

Kath Kennedy, who left her car at the DVD shop, walked back to work and then thought it had been stolen, is not alone. Tooki Proctor of Titirangi did something similar. "When I was a nanny I did the very same thing with the dog. Went in back entrance of supermarket, tied dog up outside. Came out front of supermarket, visited other shops, walked home the other way and got there to find dog missing ... moment of panic, then back to supermarket to find patient mutt with head resting on paws and a forlorn look in his eyes."

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Wet And Forget guy Rod Jenden, who was gently lambasted in Sideswipe for his take-no-prisoners approach to insect extermination (What would Ruud Kleinpaste say?), wants his right of reply. "As usual some of the radio listeners have selective hearing. I regularly explain on radio that we do not endorse the wholesale slaughter of spiders. We are talking control in selective areas ... where they build webs all over the weatherboards or where we get white-tailed spiders living in the wood pile ... If you give me the complaining reader's address I will send him a pack of Miss Muffet's Revenge so he can take care of the bug lodged in his backside."

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Yesterday Sideswipe had a go at Winston Peters being confused and thinking Fiji is part of Polynesia. Te Kohu Douglas begs to differ. He writes ... "Does Polynesia describe a cultural area or a physical geography? Whether you classify Fiji by its social structure, linguistically, by its culture, or by the physical (somatic) type of its indigenous people, it is part of Polynesia. The western boundaries of Polynesia are not as clearcut as most school maps would have us believe, and this applies especially to Fiji, which straddles a rather indistinct boundary. Whatever measure you use, the east of Fiji is Polynesian and the further west you go, the more Melanesia (and Asian) the people and landmass becomes. Besides all that, if you think Fiji is not Polynesian because of its Melanesian links, then Mt Roskill is not Polynesian either because of its Pakeha (and more recent) Asian and African links."

Sideswipe replies: The answer is a physical area. Unless someone changes the geographical map boundaries of Polynesia, Melanesia or indeed Micronesia, that's where it is. If the map's wrong, how come the planes land there OK?