Brian Rogers Rogers Rabbits www.sunlive.co.nz

It is ridiculous that tinpot little holes like Nelson and New Plymouth have RWC matches, while Tauranga misses out.

Letters to the Sun this week continue to question this. One writer points out that Tauranga is actually the fourth largest city in New Zealand – not that anyone would know, since the government postponed the census.

But you don't have to be a rocket scientist to see that the Western Bay's phenomenal growth is outstripping the rest of the country and the place is certainly bigger than Hamilton or Dunedin.

One writer this week suggests there's something more sinister going on – that 'vested interests” elsewhere in the country don't want Tauranga acknowledged as a main centre. Fascinating, we love a good conspiracy theory.

One thing is for sure, The Sun has to keep increasing the print run of your favourite newspaper to keep up with the city and regional growth. That's why The Sun is leaps and bounds ahead in both circulation and Nielsen research readership – we've kept delivering while the rest fall short – and that is showing a widening gap between The Sun and others.

No wonder the advertisers get better results and our readers are happier by the year.

Spoilt

It's ironic that in the midst of the Rugby World Cup, the term 'booty” has been kicked for touch.

Catholic bishops have decided the word is a bit dodgy these days and as part of a new translation of the Bible, they are replacing any mention of 'booty” with 'spoils”.

Here at RR headquarters we can't really see the song 'Shake your spoils” really catching on, but, hey, you never know.
A ‘spoils call' just won't be the same, either.
Fifty scholars and translators, linguistics experts, theologians and five bishops spent 17 years on the project. About the same amount of effort needed to get resource consent for a garden shed in the Bay of Plenty.
And for those who would, sensibly, rather study ancient linguistics than apply for building consent, it has just been announced that the Dead Sea Scrolls are now available online.
These documents have been hidden away securely for decades, but now can be viewed by anyone with internet access – or ironically, a tablet.

In other news this week, police are looking for a man after an assault outside an Auckland McDonald's shop.
RR experts believe that a suspect would have to be Ronnie McDonald Biggs.
Or since it's Auckland, how about tracking down Ronald McDonald Jorgensen.
One of the offenders reportedly had his hair up in a bun. Was it a sesame seed bun with two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles and onions?

On the wild side

That's about it for this week. The RR research team has been sidetracked on a mission south for our Coast & Country ‘The Wild Side' column, this time travelling in the classy new BMW X3 on a trout fishin' mission at Tongariro. This report, plus more hunting, fishing, cooking excursions – such as our day in the wilds with the VW Amarok ute, are coming up soon in our rural publication, Coast & Country. ‘The Wild Side' is also online, read it here.

Parting shot:

In oddball stories this week, a huge chunk of outdated orbiting junk came crashing down; burning up on re-entry and making a right spectacle of itself.

This smoking wreck is one of the largest pieces of debris to plunge to earth uncontrolled in the last 30 years.

So much for Don Brash.

There was also an old satellite that fell out of the sky, but it wasn't nearly as spectacular.