Our Times August 2002

nest for lovelorn

In Bangkok, a restaurant has opened where the lovelorn and brokenhearted are encouraged to express their emotions. The Lovesick Pub and Restaurant lets such people cry into their beer and throw bottles (60 cents each) at pictures of their ex-es. A soundproof room is also available for customers wishing to express more violent emotions.

the sue zoo

With one writ for every 80,000 residents, New South Wales is the defamation capital of the world, according to the Media Law Centre, based at the University of New South Wales. The rate is higher than Great Britain, which has one writ per 121,000 people, and much higher than the US, with just one for every 2.3 million people. Researchers plan to investigate the phenomenon and defamation laws over the next three years.

fast food slow-down

MacDonald’s family restaurants are losing their vice-like bite on the fast-food market it seems, with the number of new outlets dramatically slowing as sales slump—the result of mad cow disease, the Monopoly promotion fiasco (the competition was rigged by a contractor) and a cooking system that’s been lengthening queues at the counter. Each day MacDonald’s restaurants serve some 46 million people, with a single franchise taking an average of $1.6 million a year.

faced with difficulty

Facial hair fanatics were in abundance in Olten, Switzerland, earlier this year, for what was billed as Europe’s largest beard-and-moustache meet. For the enthusiasts, numbering more than 1000, there was a fashion show, competi tions and tips on how to grow different beards and moustaches. The event, organised by local hairdresser Hugo Rütimann, attracts the beared from across Europe. Two prominent beard-and-moustache groups were not in attendance, however: the Handlebar Club, founded in 1947 and based in London, couldn’t attend due to the expense, and the Beard Liberation Front boycotted the meet, calling it “silly.” Big Brother corrupted According to Peter Abbott, executive producer of Channel 10’s raunchy, almost pornographic Big Brother Uncut , what happens in “the house” isn’t his business. After being condemned by various family and church organisations for a particularly raunchy show in May, he told the media, “I see it as documenting what’s going on. . . . People can vote with their remotes,” a suggestion, which if followed, would soon see the show cut altogether.

growth potential

According to a Bulletin report on Australia’s demographic future, the continent could comfortably accomodate another 50 cities of 1.5 million people spaced at 1200 km intervals along its coast. The present average infrastructure cost (housing, hospitals, schools etc) of a new family—migrant or indigenous—in 2002 is some $A475,000.

a naming game

The Otago Daily Times says drink drivers convicted in the district’s courts will have their names and conviction highlighted on its courts pages. According to policeman Inspector Dave Cliff, drink drivers are to be villified like child molesters: “They kill people and put people in wheelchairs.

These accidents are not one-off; they happen every weekend.”

mobile message

An ultra-orthodox Jew holds his mobile telephone to the Western (Wailing) Wall, in Jerusalem, as a relative in France prays during the fast of Assery Betevet, commemorating the Babylonian siege of Jerusalem in 586 BC. The Wailing Wall, beneath the El Aqsa mosque, is Judaism’s holiest site.— AAP/AFP

100 Years ago in Signs

The following appeared in the S IGNS 100 years ago.

( S IGNS was then known as the Bible Echo and Signs of the Times .) An ingenious method of making photographic copies of plates and engravings in books which cannot be removed from the libraries, and where the use of the camera is prohibited, has been devised by a Mr F Jervis-Smith. He coats a cardboard with a phosphorescent substance, exposes it to sunlight or electric-arc light, and then places it at the back of the engraving, while a dry photographic plate is placed on the face of the engraving. The book is closed and after a period varying from 18 to 60 minutes, depending on the thickness of the paper, a satisfactory negative is produced. The book is enclosed in a black cloth during the manipulation.

Extract from Signs of the Times, August 2002.

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