Saturday, July 24, 2004

Brisk baguette on sale at drive-in bakery

PARIS (Reuters) - A croissant on the go? A brisk baguette? France may have found the answer in a drive-in bakery.
"People have become extremely busy, especially in the Paris region. We help them get to their food faster," said Michael Joly, who says his new "Drive-in Joly" boulangerie is the first in France and caters to about 200 customers per day.
The bakery is set in a former service station on a busy road west of Paris. Cars drive up to the window to buy items ranging from baguettes to tarts and pain au chocolat.
France long resisted U.S. fast-food trends, although companies such as McDonald's restaurants and coffee chain Starbucks are now common in Paris.
"It's simple -- people are in a rush, and we respond to that," Joly said.

Londoner is last in the world with his surname

An elderly Londoner has been told he's the only living person in the world with his surname.
Mike Pimbury, who lives in North London, has never married or had children so he now accepts his surname will accompany him to the grave.
After a worldwide search going back more than 300 years and taking in New Zealand, Australia and Canada, genealogists have told him that he is the only living Pimbury in the world.
The 73-year-old said: "I don't mind being the last Pimbury. But it does seem a shame that the name is going to die out."
But he has the consolation of knowing the name will live on in literature - Laurie Lee mentions a Mrs Pimbury in Cider with Rosie, his autobiographical novel about growing up in the Gloucestershire village of Slad in the Stroud Valley in the early 1900s.
Mr Pimbury and his sister Jo Wilkes started their research into the family name just over two years ago, says The Times. After months of poring over records and telephone books, they called in Karen Bali, a Southampton-based genealogist who specialises in tracing living relatives.
Ms Bali said: "I have worked on cases where the surname is quite rare but this is the first case that I have worked on where it is actually confirmed as the last."

Man wins lottery two days after divorce

An Indiana man has won a million dollars on a state lottery two days after divorcing his wife after he found her in bed with a neighbour.
The Hoosier Gazette says Randy Fletcher's sudden good luck came in a year which has so far seen him lose his wife, vintage car, and pet dog.
He found his wife Tara in bed with a neighbour when he came home from work feeling sick in January.
Then in March a deer ran into his 1956 Chevy, and in May his German Shepherd dog Molly was diagnosed with cancer and put down.
He thought he had lost his life savings when his divorce from Tara came through on July 15 after a four-year marriage.
But two days later he found he had won the million dollar jackpot in the lottery he had been taking part in twice a week for several years.
Fletcher, an electrician from Brownstown, said: "I was in complete shock for several hours.
"It took me several minutes to catch my breath. It was the most unbelievable and amazing feeling I have ever had, especially after all that had happened this year."
Although he will only take home 289,000 dollars, or 157,225 pounds, after going for the cash option and paying off taxes, he says he plans to use the money to buy a Harley Davidson, a new German Shepherd dog, and go on holiday to Cancun this winter.
Asked what advice he would give to others who were having a run of bad luck, he said: "Just keep plugging away. Sooner or later things will look up. I am a prime example of that."

Sleazy guests prompt call to ban hotel porn

OSLO (Reuters) - Angry hotel workers in Norway want to ban pay-TV pornography to stop naked porn-watching guests calling room service to lure female staff to their rooms.
A typical trick by guests, mostly businessmen, is to call the front desk for extras, such as fresh towels, to get female company, said the Norwegian Hotel and Restaurant Workers' Union, reporting a rising number of complaints.
"Most room service personnel work alone. It can be very unpleasant to get called to a room to be met by a naked man," union leader Eli Ljunggren told Reuters. She said the complaints ranged from sleazy remarks to physical assaults.
"Pornography does not belong in hotel rooms. Pay-TV should be limited to entertainment," she said. Most Norwegian hotels, like many hotels around the world, have easy access to pornography channels in hotel rooms for a fee.

Kerry's wife tells reporter to "shove it"

BOSTON (Reuters) - Minutes after telling her husband's supporters to restore a more dignified tone to politics, Teresa Heinz Kerry told a reporter to "shove it."
In a reception on Sunday in Massachusetts, the wife of Democratic candidate Senator John Kerry told Democratic Party delegates from her home state of Pennsylvania there needed to be a change in American politics.
"We have to turn back some of the creeping, un-Pennsylvanian and sometimes un-American traits that are coming into some of our politics," she said. Morning television shows broadcast the remarks on Monday morning.
When a reporter from a conservative Pennsylvania newspaper, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, pressed Mrs. Heinz Kerry what she had meant by "un-American" she said repeatedly, "No, I didn't say that, I didn't say that."
She then turned away only to return moments later. "You said something I didn't say, now shove it," she said, pointing her finger at the reporter.

Sunday, July 25, 2004

Bush Kerry - this land

This is one of the funniest flash videos I've seen in ages click here , well done you 2 dudes at jibjab

quotes of the week

Blake? Blaine? pass - Malachi Davis , an american until a few days ago but who will now represent Britain at the Olympics, Struggling to name the Prime minister

I even pretended years ago to be an African , a half caste African , of course - Princess Michael of Kent defends herself against claims that she is racist

The first one's the hardest, then after that you know the routine - Liz taylor ,giving advice to recently divorced Lionel Ritchie

I think the greatest thing when you're a femal is to remember that your place is in the home - Hollywood actress Kate Hudson

Vikings had small "willy" fear

THE terrifying Vikings had a nagging worry ā€” about the size of their manhoods, scientists say.
Even as they raped and pillaged their way across Europe, they were troubled by the thought that size really DID matter.
The theory comes from studies of Viking writings by Cardiff University.
One researcher said: ā€?The sagas show a relationship between male genitals and a manā€™s identity that is both familiar and alien to us.ā€¯
In one, a serving wench laughs at a naked warrior, saying: ā€?It seems to me extraordinary how small he is below.ā€¯

Prisoners go on beer run

FOUR jail inmates who walked out of an unlocked cell to go and buy booze are now facing charges.
Ridgy Dean Coleman, Jimmy Joe Stapleton, David Wayne Blizzard and David Allen Hopkins realised their luck was in after dozy guards at a prison in Tennessee, US, forgot to lock the prisoners inside.
Two of the group slipped out through a fire exit and made a hole in the exercise yard fence.
They hot-footed it to the nearest shop, bought some beer and came back to prison.
After the four had swigged all the beer, the other two prisoners went to get more supplies from a different store.
Supermarket staff had no idea who their customers were because the escapees were wearing street clothes borrowed from other inmates, the Sun Sentinel reported.
The four have now been charged with escape and introduction of alcohol into a prison.
"I guess they thought if they came back they wouldn't be charged with escape but they were wrong," said Sheriff Warren Rimer.
He admitted it was an "unfortunate incident" but pointed out that all 36 inmates could have absconded.
"At least they came back," he added.

The Ā£2million Lotto liar

A CALLOUS hoaxer was facing the fury of his friends last night after he conned them into believing he had won a Ā£2.4million Lotto jackpot.
Dalip Singh, 21, told four best mates he was taking them to LAS VEGAS.
He promised to kit them out in Ā£900 Hugo Boss fitted SUITS, Ā£1,000 Raymond Weil WATCHES and bling-bling JEWELLERY.
The skint university student told his frail mother he would buy her a luxury HOUSE. And he vowed to set up a trust fund to send his niece and nephew to PRIVATE SCHOOLS.
Another of Singhā€™s friends in Maidenhead, Berks, said the four pals all believed they were jetting off to the US today.
He said: ā€?Theyā€™ve taken time off work. Theyā€™ll be gutted when they find out the truth.
ā€?He told them he had sorted out designer suits for each of them and they would also get designer watches. He said they were going to London to buy the bling to go with it and pick up the airline tickets.
ā€?Theyā€™ve been celebrating all week down the local pub. If he hasnā€™t won it there will be a lot of his friends seriously unhappy.
ā€?I canā€™t believe he took the joke this far. Heā€™s hurt his oldest friends. If he thinks itā€™s funny I think heā€™ll soon find out otherwise.ā€¯
Singh stayed up until 7am boozing with his mates after telling them he had won Ā£2,448,478 in last Saturdayā€™s draw.
The business student also duped his local newspaper, the Maidenhead Advertiser, which pictured him on the front page holding his bogus winning ticket ā€” despite being told by Camelot that Singh had NOT won.
A Camelot spokesman confirmed last night: ā€?Itā€™s ridiculous. He has not won any money. This was not a nice thing to do.ā€¯

Keys removed from patient's sore leg

An Iranian man who lost his keys 16 years ago was shocked to find they'd been embedded in his leg all along.
The 50-year-old man felt a strong pain in his leg and was taken to the hospital.
An X-ray showed the keys were lodged in his leg.
The man accidentally fired a rifle 16 years ago, injuring himself in the leg, says nbc10 news.
The bullet was removed but the keys that were lodged in his leg along with the bullet were left there

Mystery lottery winner donates winning ticket

TOKYO (Reuters) - Officials in western Japan are marvelling at the generosity of a mystery philanthropist who donated a $1.8 million (980,000 pound) lottery ticket to help victims of recent torrential rainstorms.
In an extremely rare display of charity, a winning lottery ticket good for a 200 million yen grand prize was mailed to the governor of Fukui prefecture on Friday with a note saying it was intended as a donation for rain victims.
"I am sending a lottery ticket that is blessed with luck hoping that it will be of some help to the people who had the misfortune of suffering damages," the letter said.
Hiroko Imatomi, a Fukui prefecture official who first spotted the mail, said the note convinced her the sender was sincere.
"It was a wonderful letter ... It was definitely not intended as a hoax or a joke," she said.
"It must be from a rare type of person who has a big heart and hopes it will help people who suffered a lot," Imatomi said.
The sender used a false name and local authorities have no way to find out who sent the winning ticket, which has been confirmed as being authentic, she said.
Torrential downpours pounded Fukui prefecture on July 17-18, killing three people, injuring 17 and destroying or damaging more than 200 homes.

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