Sideswipe: September 17: Police tussle

At first glance this looks like your typical police tussle, but further photos show the offender is a flat wheelchair tyre and the officers are changing it by using their batons to lever the tyre back on.

Cellphone vigilance in the city
Matt writes: "Saw a young guy in a car talking on his phone coming down Pitt St. Someone on a motorbike started tooting his horn and gesticulating at the driver. Motorbike stops in front of car and rider goes up to driver's window yelling. Driver hangs up phone and looks scared. Rider hops on bike and leaves. I'm wondering if it's the beginning of a 'bad driving' vigilante movement! I have always thought there was a lack of police numbers in the city enforcing red-light running, cellphone use and general bad drivers." Is it vigilantes or just a one-off road rage incident?

Nicola found this in her letterbox from the Conservative candidate for Pakuranga. "Bit of an awkward choice of words given the spying allegations surfacing at the moment ... not to mention the typo!"

Power price-gouging
A reader from Westmere writes: "My latest energy bill is for $97.81. The bill says if I pay it on time, they will knock $21.52 off. I can think of no other bill that drops by almost a quarter if I pay it on the due date. If they can afford to give me a 22 per cent discount without going out of business, they are plainly price-gouging. Why not drop the energy price by 22 per cent and charge late penalties?"

Dating site clanger
A reader writes: "A woman in our office decided to go 'fishing' on an internet dating site. She composed her profile, planning to reread it before sending, but a friend dropped in so she hit the approve button without a final proof. Next day she was flabbergasted at the number of messages she'd had ... until she read them. They were a bit suggestive so she reread her profile ... then she understood. She thought she'd written, 'I have a huge love of life and pretty much up for anything' but she had left out the word 'of'."

A noise complaint hits a sour note with Oklahoma police.

Politics: Unless you're not sick to death of politics, I thought this was a good question to ask: "Are people treating politics like a sport, where loyalty to "your team" is a given? Politicians should earn your support, not hold it by default. Voters are becoming entrenched, defensive and wilfully ignorant in order to stay true to their pre-determined side." Check out the discussion here.

Picture this: These Bull Terrier portraits are delightfully whimsical ...

Politics: If you don't want to spend the entire evening with Campbell, Hosk, Plunket and the usual suspects of New Zealand political talkers there's a live election results show called 'Discourse Votes' online. "It won't be as star studded and polished as the proper TV networks, but we'll have real results, real discussions and plenty of fun - live on the night from 7pm," says maker Dylan Reeve.

Video: Did your drive into work feel like this?

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Got a Sideswipe? Send your pictures, links and anecdotes to Ana at ana.samways@nzherald.co.nz