Sideswipe: Sep 28: No awesome dogs allowed

No awesome dogs allowed.

Actor Connolly no Tolkien fan

Billy Connolly, who plays Dain Ironfoot in the The Hobbit trilogy, has called Tolkien "unreadable", stating "I didn't read [The Hobbit or The Lord of the Rings], and I normally don't like people who have! The people who love it, they're kind of scary. They talk all this gobbledygook and they think of it as the Holy Grail." (Source: Vulture.com)

Good old-fashioned advice

1. "Use plain unruled white paper of fine quality when sending or answering invitations. Ruled paper should only be used for business correspondence. The lines imply a doubt of your being able to write without the aid of line." (from Sloan's Cook Book and Advice to Housekeepers, 1905)

2. "Avoid raillery and sarcasm at social parties. They are weapons which few can use; and because you happen to have a razor in your possession, that is no reason why you should be allowed to cut the throats of the rest who are unarmed."

(from Hand-Book of Etiquette, and Guide to True Politeness, 1866)

Mother sues after being jailed for letting children ride scooters

Tammy Cooper has sued the La Porte, Texas, police department and one of her neighbours after she was arrested for abandoning a child after letting her children, aged 6 and 9, ride their scooters in the cul-de-sac in front of their home. Cooper says she was sitting in her yard just a few metres away but the neighbour reported the children were unsupervised. Prosecutors eventually dropped the charges but not before Cooper spent a night in jail and spent $7000 in legal fees.

Fake grenade launcher arrest

A Phoenix, Arizona, man dressed his nephew in a sheet and sent him into a busy street with a fake grenade launcher, filming the masked teenager pointing the weapon at passing cars to see how long it took police to respond, authorities said. Michael Turley was arrested on Tuesday, nearly two months after the bizarre film was posted to YouTube. He is on bail. The YouTube clip shows the teen marching back and forth at an intersection. The police response took just over three minutes from the first call, and a helicopter and commando team were dispatched as backup.