Column 8

Lynda Geppert of Narooma asks: "Why have all those teddy bears been nailed to the trees from Canberra to Bungendore on the Kings Highway?" She reports that some have been there for years, but others have been freshly impaled. Perhaps they are meant to serve as a warning to little children - naughty teddies who wouldn't eat their vegetables.

Dollar's Year Of Extreme And Unprecedented Volatility

"IT MAKES the bursting of the tech bubble look like a teddy bears' picnic," says Westpac's Sean Callow, trying to describe the year in currency markets.