Doctors need to know the differences between blokes and sheilas – so what else is there to gender studies?

One has a willy, the other hasn't - so what's to be studied?

Alf can’t get too excited about the axing of New Zealand’s first gender studies programme at Victoria University.

Yes, he has heard the wailings from feminist Sandra Coney who says there are still gains to be made in feminist movements where work was “not complete by any stretch of the imagination”.

It was a shame Victoria University was removing courses that catered to a diverse range of people, she said. “You’re really undermining … the concept of what a university is.”

But Alf can’t get too excited.

Protectionists will be peeved as a pugnacious Piha preservationist pitches for support

Alf gave the protectionists' domain a miss...

...to sup with the preservationists.

Hats off to Andrew Higgs, who aims to represent residents of Auckland’s west coast villages and towns east of the Waitakere Ranges.

Andrew was involved in the struggle against a reactionary army of greenies, heritage huggers, meusli munchers and what-have-you-to set up a cafe in Piha.

An outfit called the Protect Piha Heritage Society engaged in a three-years battle with Preserve Piha Limited in the Environment Court to scuttle the cafe proposal.

And so Piha protectionists were pitched against Piha preservationists (readers should warn anyone within spitting distance to stand well back before they read those words out loud).