Shedding light on the pill

THE unknown nightclub patron who slipped former rugby league star Andrew "Joey" Johns an ecstasy tablet in London last weekend could not have had worse timing.

THE unknown nightclub patron who slipped former rugby league star Andrew "Joey" Johns an ecstasy tablet in London last weekend could not have had worse timing.

Johns, who was forced to abandon football in April after suffering a neck injury, has since been working on an autobiography, Joey: The Andrew Johns Story, which is due for publication by HarperSport in November. Billed as "perhaps the most revealing autobiography of an Australian sports hero", the book promises to take readers "deep within his personality" and to "reveal what's inside the psyche of the most influential and brilliant footballer of his generation". No doubt the editors were yesterday scrambling to rewrite the last chapter of the 320-page tome to highlight Johns's alleged innocent stupidity in the drug possession.

See Dick in Kazakhstan

TIRELESS adventurer Dick Smith and his wife Pip are stranded in the middle of Kazakhstan. The couple have been driving across the world but a little more than halfway they have come to a halt. "Even though I am an electronics man, it's the electronics of the car that have gone," Smith says by satellite phone from the former Soviet state in central Asia, recently made famous by Sacha Baron Cohen's comedy character Borat. The Smiths started their journey in Anchorage, Alaska, last year but after 21,000km their four-wheel-drive vehicle won't start. Smith says he and Pip are 50km from the city of Taldy Kurgan in southeast Kazakhstan. If he can get the car started, the 41,000km journey is due to end in Sydney in June next year.

No cold shoulders here

THE decision by the Seven Network last Friday to use personal medical records for a story on drug use among AFL footballers has led to some irate players refusing to answer questions from the network's journalists. But the anger has not transferred to other football codes if the reaction of Perth Glory captain Simon Colosimo is any indication. Colosimo, no doubt buoyed by news he had just been selected for the Socceroos' match against Argentina at the MCG on Tuesday week, demanded to know whether there were any Seven journalists in attendance before beginning an interview in Perth yesterday. "Is Channel 7 here? Because I want to talk to them," he joked. Asked if was surprised by his call-up to the national squad, the soccer star didn't hold back: "Will I sound arrogant if I say no?"

Putty in their hands

MORE than 500 dads have responded to an online poll by accommodation broker Wotif asking what they want to get for Father's Day on Sunday morning. A weekend away with their children is the top pick, followed by a weekend away without the children. The nominations for worst present are more interesting. A tub of window putty, a book on financial management and a vacuum cleaner rate as the worst, closely followed by an IOU and nose-hair clippers. Wotif markets manager Saskia Moon says the findings also show many fathers receive nothing or an 11th-hour gift purchased from the local supermarket.

Make every fish come true

TASMANIAN pulp mills took a back seat to flathead, bream and leatherjackets yesterday as beleaguered federal Environment Minister Malcolm Turnbull turned his attention to the 4500 species of fish found around our shoreline. Turnbull unveiled The Zoological Catalogue of Australian Fishes, the first book to document all the names. It is designed to prevent fishmongers and supermarkets labelling fish incorrectly and to make it easier for consumers to choose what fish to buy. "What's in a name?" Turnbull asked. "Well, ask anyone who has gone into a fish shop and asked for a fillet of snapper and instead got a piece of redfish, they know there's everything in a name."

Flee flu for a flutter

AS the hayburner influenza continues to make savage inroads into our horse racing industry, our near neighbours are doing their best to lure away all that spare moolah not being siphoned off by the local bookies. Hong Kong Jockey Club chief executive Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges is pushing all manner of temptations to lure Aussie punters to the former crown colony's Happy Valley and Sha Tin racecourses, including lavish buffets with unlimited wine, beer and soft drinks in the airconditioned members' enclosure. It beats a pie and a beer at the local dog track.

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