Brian Rogers Rogers Rabbits www.sunlive.co.nz

The Bay seems to be breathing a collective sigh of relief, now the Rena has gone. Right? Wrong. It's a case of 'out of sight, out of mind”.

Because, despite appearances out at Astrolabe, only a fraction of this disaster has been removed. Less than 10 per cent of the wreck has been removed from the reef. But now there's nothing left above the waves, there's a sense of relief in some quarters that the problem is nearly over.
That couldn't be further from the truth. Tauranga's own ancient mariner, Butler, sums it up pretty well in the latest edition of Waterline, due out any day now.
Here's a couple of comments from Butler:
'There are plenty of ideas for removing the Rena but perhaps more than 90 per cent of the ship is still at the reef. There are still a lot of containers and debris submerged around the wreck site, still lots of toxins, and the like, and the MV Rena is still a big headache. But it's down below the horizon and under the sea, and is no longer a constant reminder of what can, and often does, happen to ships – even large well-run commercial container ships. And now that MV Rena is gone from sight and mind, the perception of crisis is finally over.
Thank goodness it wasn't the wreck of a large tanker carrying perhaps 100,000 tonne of crude oil from freshly-exploited oil reserves off the New Zealand coast. Then the problems would never be over, the region would have been devastated environmentally, ecologically and economically for generations to come.”

Another shipwreck
Meanwhile, another vessel continues to cut a swathe of mayhem across the Bay of Plenty, with reckless abandon.
The hapless ship Creative Tauranga seems to go from crisis to drama – and this week was cast adrift from The Cargo Shed management.
Not much good has ever come from this Creative Tauranga, which is another leech sucking relentlessly at Mother Ratepayer's well-abused tit. The only creativity seems to come from their ability to talk money out of councillors.
The TCC funding this year is pushing $280,000 and the Western Bay is tipping in about $50,000.
Meanwhile, the tenants of The Cargo Shed have succeeded in a well-overdue mutiny, getting rid of the loot-plundering lot, and are plotting their own course. We wish them a safe and prosperous voyage without the shackles and blood-sucking of their former management.

Strange lights
Speaking of mayhem at sea, we've had some fascinating feedback on our story a couple of weeks ago, about strange lights in, and over, the Tauranga Harbour.
We'll bring you updates on this bizarre case in coming weeks. Watch space. This space.

Free lunch
There's no such thing as a free lunch, or so the saying goes. The Government is planning to dish out free tucker to kids who turn up to school without breakfast.
But unless there's some repercussions for the useless parents, the cycle will never end.
If they are already parents that care so little for their children, that their kids turn up to school hungry, this will just become another cop out for them.
So they now have no incentive to get out of bed and sort their kids out before school.
And what are these children going to learn? That they too can grow up to breed with no responsibility for their offspring.
The social welfare benefit is calculated to allow these families to live healthily and comfortably. There are many families reliant on the benefit, who manage it.
The ones that fail to provide the necessities of life for their children, despite being paid for it, need to have their benefit docked.
The children growing up with parents, who neglect to feed them, need to understand that hand-outs, over and above the benefit, are not acceptable and not normal – and that society isn't going to keep shelling out and propping up. There's probably no hope for the no hoper parents. But the kids may still be salvageable; in the hope they can break the cycle and become better parents themselves.

Hold the front page!
Just through in a press release: There will be some exciting changes to ‘Food in a Minute'. Here at RR headquarters, we could hardly contain ourselves when news of this broke.
A couple of us had to have a sit down and a cup of tea to regain composure.
‘Food in a Minute' is already so enthralling, how could they possibly make it more exciting?
Is it going to be Food in Two Minutes?
Is Lana going to be joined by Lisa Lewis, to read the recipes topless? Or will it be filmed from the lion enclosure at the zoo?
For 16 years we've been living next door to Alice, no, I meant riveted to the telly just before the news, to learn of fast and easy recipes.
And there's talent behind the scenes, as a quick visit to the website tells us.
Such as Di Swann, the food editor during all these years. And Hannah Cullinane, the nutritionist who, it appears, cuts her own hair.
Remember the anguish when we heard that Allyson Gofton was leaving ‘Food in a Minute', and Watties were looking for a new presenter? Well, that news shook the world didn't it. Searching the universe for a suitable replacement for Allyson. Those were dark days. The world waited on the edge of its seat. Birds stopped singing in the trees. Even the search for a potential new US president went onto the back burner. We forgot about Kosovo declaring independence from Serbia; Fidel Castro retiring as president of Cuba; and Bill Gates stepping down as chairman of Microsoft.
Not even the firing up in Geneva, Switzerland, of the Large Hadron Collider, the biggest scientific experiment in the history of mankind – could detract from the sense of anxiety and foreboding that came with the shattering news of Allyson's betrayal of the hungry people of New Zealand.
We had bigger fish to fry – while we anguished over who would be the next queen of ‘Food in a Minute'. Or heaven forbid, king.
Then, before you can say 'Moreish Meatballs in Tomato and Red Wine Sauce” we had Lana. The sun came out, flowers blossomed and the world breathed a collective sigh of relief. ‘Food in a Minute' was complete again.
Now it's going to be even better!
Bring on 5.59pm. I don't think we can wait much longer.

Parting thought
Thanks to reader Kevin following the column on the English language: 'It reminded me of a tongue twister I learned long ago. Try to say this fast:
Whether the weather be cold; Or whether the weather be hot; We weather the weather; Whatever the weather; Whether we like it or not.