Sideswipe: An elemen-tree error

A sign at Laingholm Primary School.

Mike Dakin of Browns Bay says the North Shore City Council's response to a pohutukawa bough hanging precariously over cars at the corner of Beach and Glencoe Rds, is farcical. "Over a three-month period, the gap in the fence widened to over 80cm. The head of the tree is dividing as the branch sags ... Either the trunks will split with the left one falling on to the busy road or the whole tree will go, also on to the road. The council was so alarmed at the imminent danger to the public ... that it had the fence cut to accommodate the tree's lean. Creative thinking at work. The fence is all back in place and what a relief! But, er, isn't the tree the real problem?"

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Angry mourners in Austria have demanded the scrapping of talking tombstones where the dead can send messages from beyond the grave. The headstones - fitted with screens and speakers - play recordings of the owners' lives when their loved ones come to pay their respects. But spooked visitors have asked graveyard officials in the town of Linz to ban them. Eva Langer, 67, said: "I was kneeling beside my husband's grave saying a prayer when I heard a voice, and then laughter and music. When I looked round I saw a dead man's face talking to me from the tombstone next door." (Source: The Sun)

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North Shore resident Juha got a disconcerting letter from the city council saying Interflow would be "conducting high-pressure water cleaning and closed-circuit television in sections of public sewers in your area". He was mildly alarmed to be told the process might cause air bubbles to be "blown from the toilet pan". The council suggests, when the toilet is not in use, a damp towel be put over the toilet pan and covered with seat and lid.

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A reader thought the man who expressed his disappointment at the One Tree Hill College school brochure featuring a pupil in a state of untuckedness gave himself away when he said "in my day". "Anyone who says that proves they are out of touch. Shirts nowadays are designed without tails to be worn, untucked, as is the fashion. Only when a tailed shirt hangs out does it look scruffy," she says.

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Nic writes of the swastika necklace featured yesterday: "I think that despite the negative connotations imparted by the Nazis, it's about time we took back the positives that were always intended by this ancient symbol (it's about 3000 years old apparently) of life, sun, power, strength and good luck. I suspect that the charm itself has come from a country like India where I believe these values are still attached to the symbol." Good luck with that.

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