Who's Shocked?
The Dutch just keep getting more and more depraved:
Erotic furniture based on the female body . . . is the latest fad in Holland
[http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_1636045.html]. Warning: Erotic link.
Eric Scheske
How Long Can You Be "In Love"?
> The powerful emotions that bowl over new lovers are triggered by a molecule
known as nerve growth factor (NGF), according to Pavia University researchers.
> The Italian scientists found far higher levels of NGF in the blood of 58 people
who had recently fallen madly in love than in
Expensive Card
> A 162-year-old Christmas card - one of the first ever printed - sold at auction
Saturday for $16,000.
> The hand-colored card, which shows a family celebrating around a table, is one
of about 10 surviving from an original batch of 1,000 printed in 1843,
auctioneer
Festivus for the Rest of Us!
What's next? The silver pole?
> It worried Mitra Sen when pupils at her school were not allowed to take part in
multicultural celebrations because their parents didn't want them to be exposed
to different cultural and religious beliefs.
> Afraid these kids would be deprived
Christmas Beatings Permitted
> Austria's traditional Christmas devils have been given police clearance to carry
on smacking people's back-sides.
> Locals in towns across the country dress up as either St Nicholas, handing out
sweets to the good, or as the devil, handing out beatings to the bad.
This is Too Fitting to Succeed
A reader sends this along:
> A preservation group plans to spend $600,000 to renovate the rundown guard room
at the Ohio State Reformatory, the imposing old prison where "The Shawshank
Redemption" was filmed.
> The Mansfield Reformatory Preservation Society hopes to rent the room for
weddings
Orthodoxy in Hollywood
> "The problem with Hollywood movies today is not necessarily stupidity or too
much sex and violence. It's that in too many of today's movies, characters never
change. . . .
> "Liberal orthodoxies about politics and culture have become sacramental in some
circles, and better to
Lotto Winnings Buy A Lot of Pabst
The boorish person who earns a lot of money doesn't become demure. In fact, he
becomes more boorish. Likewise, the low class person who wins the lottery stays
low class and, it appears, becomes even more low class. NYT Link
[http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/05/national/
Detroit in Even Bigger Trouble?
Sebastian Mallaby at WaPo says India and other formerly-third world countries
are ready to jump into the automobile market
[http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/04/AR2005120401094.html]
. Can our car makers continue to pay factory workers $30 an hour and executives
tens of millions?
Intuitive Eating
This has too much common sense to catch on. Heck, if you take this to its
logical conclusion, you'll be back in the Dark Ages and talk about gluttony and
temperance.
> When Steven Hawks is tempted by ice cream bars, M&Ms and toffee-covered almonds