On re-reading a 20-year-old newspaper column by the late great Bernard Levin last night, I thought I’d share this pearl of wisdom.

“I have long made it clear,” Bernard wrote, “that as soon as I become Prime Minister my first item of legislation will be a measure to prohibit any actor, on pain of being summarily hanged, from expressing any political opinion.”

Who would disagree with that? The only criticism is why stop at p

With the seemingly permanent road closure of the spectacular Manawatu river gorge road, a couple of years back the Conservation Department came up with the excellent substitution idea of creating a walking track through the gorge.

A Woodville local Milton Wainwright and other volunteers commendably got stuck in and assisted while carver Craig Kawana created a series of traditional Maori carvings called Te Hononga Maunga for the track, which supposedly offered a welcome and safe passage.

The report of a tiny Canterbury village café and its owner operators persistent rudeness to her customers brought back fond memories from 30 years ago.

A middle-aged French women opened a French restaurant in Wellington’s Tinakori Road’s up-market restaurant row. She was an outstanding chef and deservedly drew customers for that reason but for most, the real attraction lay in her notorious and unrelenting rudeness and insults to her clientele. Her waitresses all bore stunned mullet looks as they also copped her unrelenting abuse. Needless to say there was a constant turnover in staff.