Sideswipe

Nothing like a bit of self-interest when it comes to elected officials ... Wellington City Council this week reversed its decision to block part of Manners St to private cars. Apparently several of the councillors had realised the buses-only plan stood in the way of them getting home by the shortest route after late-night council meetings.

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There's also nothing like a bit of do-gooder hypocrisy: Auckland City's heritage police banned the traditional and popular neon decorations from the face of the restored Civic Theatre on the grounds they weren't authentic enough. So how come large images of the label of a certain world-famous beer are now being screened on the theatre's bare - or is that beer - exterior at night? What price heritage? What price the council's signage rules?

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Or a parallel over-reaction from the other side of the world: A high school band director has apologised for a halftime performance that included Deutschland Uber Alles, the anthem closely associated with Adolf Hitler, and a student running across the field with a Nazi flag. Paris High School's band director, Charles Grissom, said his intention was to have a historical performance featuring the flags and music of the nations that fought during World War II. "We were booed," Grissom said. "We had things thrown at us. We were cursed." Grissom said he never intended to offend anyone, and he apologised repeatedly. "We had an error in judgment," he said. The show also included the flags and music of France, Britain, Japan and the United States. The flags were raised in intervals that corresponded with the music of the nations. (Source: Associated Press)

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Reader Iona Chalmers writes: "Further to the story in yesterday's Sideswipe of the stolen Dutch bicycle that was returned after 24 years, my mother recalled my father's story of a man he knew in the Deep South who was working at Bluff Harbour at the outbreak of World War II. One day his mother arrived at his work with call-up papers for him to go to war. He immediately dropped everything and took a taxi home to get ready, leaving his bicycle at the wharf. Some five or six years later after returning from the war, having been demobbed, he went back to the wharf and his bicycle was still there where he had left it. Honesty in war time was remarkable!"

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The billboard at the bottom of Franklin Rd, Freemans Bay, promoting the Powerlynk ticket seeking to regain control of the Vector electricity firm blew over in last weekend's storm. When we last looked yesterday it was still a crumpled heap. Hope, if they regain control, their storm damage repair service will be more efficient.

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