Sideswipe: February 7: Dog for sale

Canine couch: This lounge suite should have been for sale on Trade Me - except the owner's dog got to it first...

Island crime on island time

In November the 220 inhabitants of Coll, an island off the Scottish coast, experienced the first "crime" they could remember. Someone vandalised the visitors' centre public loos, doing $300 damage. A constable was summoned from a nearby island but seas were rough and he waited two days for a ferry. One Coll resident vaguely recalled a man in a pub who threatened to throw a punch (but didn't), and another recalled someone who took whale bones left on a beach by researchers (but returned them). (Source: News of the Weird)

Drawing a long bow, and arrow

A reader writes: "When my brother was little, he didn't know that Indians came from India and not the Wild West. A young Indian family friend didn't spoil a small boy's excitement of knowing a 'real Indian'. He told stories, answered Jerry's questions about fighting cowboys with his bow and arrows, and even - oh joy - made him a set. A real Indian bow and arrow that had killed cowboys! I don't know how old Jerry was before he caught on, but he (and Jack/Jagadish) had a lot of fun together."

Slippery leg-pulling

Dylan writes: "The head porter at the Isle of Wight's Seaview Hotel where I worked in 1960 sent one of the young porters to the local hardware shop for 'a pound of elbow grease'. He returned 15 minutes later with the message they were out of stock!"

Teacher knows best

Craig writes: "My son was pulling faces in class and the teacher told him 'the wind will change and you'll stay that way'. I told him it was just a saying and if his teacher said it again he should ask 'Is that what happened to you, miss?' I suspect from his lack of detentions he never took my advice."