KEY POINTS:
Workers at a leading chain of budget hotels are being given advice on how to deal with naked sleepwalkers after an increase in the number of guests found wandering around in the night with no clothes on. A study conducted in 310 Travelodge hotels found there had been a seven-fold increase in sleepwalking customers in the past year, to more than 400 cases, almost always involving men. It found that many naked sleepwalkers walked into the reception area asking for a newspaper or saying they wanted to check out. Sleep experts blamed stress, alcohol abuse or even lack of sleep for the disorder. (Source: Press Association, London)
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Lynn, from Auckland, writes: "Saturday SideSwipe had Margaret commenting on the Banrock Station neck-tag which explains how to open a screwcap bottle. Unfortunately this does not suggest only the Australians have difficulty, as recently when I was in an Auckland wine bar the barman tried to open a screwcap bottle of New Zealand wine with a corkscrew."
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Meanwhile, Doug, from Mangawhai, adds: "If you think the Banrock Station bottle-opening instructions suggest Aussies are thick, then the instructions on Bundaberg soft drinks really prove it. The label reads, 'Invert bottle before opening'. Sounds messy."
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An Austrian anti-pornography activist wants officials in the Alpine city of Innsbruck to take down a large crucifix bearing a sculpture of a naked Jesus Christ. Martin Humer, who gained notoriety last year after he painted part of a statue of a nude Mozart and stuck feathers on it, was pressuring authorities to remove the crucifix from a public square where it has been displayed for 20 years, public broadcaster ORF reported. Innsbruck Mayor Hilde Zach dismissed the fuss and said she would refuse to remove the crucifix, insisting it was a work of art and in no way pornographic. In March 2006, the public prosecutor's office in Salzburg charged Humer and an accomplice with vandalism for defacing the "Homage to Mozart".
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Shoe-designer Marc Jacobs recently crossed a frontier in fashion by introducing women's high-heeled shoes with the "heel" in the front. Wrote London's Daily Mail: "A chunky, 4-inch heel nestles horizontally just under the ball of the foot. Where you'd expect a heel, there is nothing but fresh air." Models of the shoe are priced in the $500 to $700 range. (Source: News of the Weird)
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Tragic but avoidable deaths. (1) A 27-year-old woman was killed in Melvindale, Michigan, while setting off Fourth of July fireworks when she failed to move her head out of the way after launching a 3-inch mortar bomb. (2) A 55-year-old man in South Dakota was killed in August when he accidentally shot himself in the stomach, attempting to show friends that a recent CSI television script was wrong, and that a victim could not physically have managed to shoot herself in the stomach.
