NEWS TO AMUSE…
Had I the time I know that I would be reasonably likely to find comprehensive digests of all the major American news stories right here at home on Salon Blogs. I would need to look no further for clear & cogent analyses, subscribing to my political inclinations, of Stateside events.
However, there would always be one vital story that would slip through the net & for those more recherché tales I rely on the UK Independent on Sunday. The following three crucial items might well have been lost to the wider world had the IOS not seized them in passing…
It seem that the Bank of Ephraim in Utah has had to shut up shop, having gone bust after granting loans to a total amount of $17 million to members of a fundamentalist Christian sect, which believes that the end of the world is imminent . A US news report was delighted to be able to report that those washed in the blood of the lamb were “borrowing money like there was no tomorrow”.
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A man from Virginia has just picked up 3 years’ probation for checking into a New York State hotel with 14 jars of Vaseline with which he proceeded to coat every single object in the room including himself. Maybe he had hopes of slipping away late at night without paying.
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A Little Rock, Arkansas man was taken to court recently by unseasonably inclined neighbours. Apparently his 3 million-bulb outside Christmas display could be seen from 80 miles away.
ROSIE & EMMA - November 2004
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It’s the final week of the school term. On Thursday I go to talk to the headmaster about my impending retirement. I shall suggest a number of possible scenarios whereby I might be re-employed part-time so that a.) the school need not lose my services, & b.) I might supplement my pension & enable both kids to continue to attend their excellent day nursery. He will turn them down as being against school policy, as is reflected in our contractually binding terms of employment. I shall point out, politely but firmly, that within a little over a year it will be illegal to enforce retirement at 60. He will point out, politely but firmly, that the legislation is not yet in place. He will be right. I shall rise & go, sad but unsurprised.
10:57:40 PM 
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