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News of the Weird: Cultural Diversity; eggs-ellent! (from the archives) By Chuck Shepherd
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | China's dynamic economy has created Western-style insecurities, including young women's anxieties about beauty and self-improvement as they search for employment. Consequently, China has become the world's third-largest consumer of plastic surgery services -- with demand that perhaps challenges the supply of skilled surgeons. Women typically want wider eyes, "sliced" eyelids, narrower noses and jaws, and smaller chins, and both men and women seek height by attempting the painful (and usually unsuccessful) "heel implant" procedure. (A currently popular, less invasive remedy for immediate body streamlining -- as when preparing for a job interview -- involves ingesting eggs of the ringworm, so that the worm devours food before the stomach can digest it.) [Washington Post, 12-22-2010] [Daily Mail (London)]
Every Dec. 24 in Sweden, at 3 p.m., a third to a half of all Swedes sit down to watch the same traditional television program that has marked Christmas for the last 50 years: a lineup of historic Donald Duck cartoons. According to a December report on Slate.com, the show is insinuated in the national psyche because it was the first big holiday program when Swedes began to acquire television sets in 1959. Entire families still watch together, repeating their favorite lines. [Slate]
The epicenter of California's January (1994) "Northridge" earthquake was five miles from the United States's then-largest egg farm, where hens had produced their usual 1 million eggs in the hours before the quake hit. The damage to the farm was a snapped water line, toppled empty egg pallets and a total of one broken egg. Said manager Robert Wagner to his employees, "We had a 6.6 earthquake that broke less eggs than you guys do when we're working." [San Francisco Chronicle, 1-31-94] Click here to comment on this column.
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• News from Islam-land; Latest Cutting-Edge Research • Those Ingenious Western Spies!; Cultural Diversity • Can't Possibly Be True; Motherly Love • Least Competent Criminals; Questionable Judgments • This mafia really are animals; out of control businesses • Least Competent Criminals; from the archives • Their Crimes Fit Their Names; Bright Ideas • Latest ‘Rights’; Compelling Explanations • One of the world's most bizarre conferences; delicious ironies • Thinning the herd; Downgrade Cut Short; from the archives • Cleverest Non-Humans; Medicare In Action • Oops!; The Weirdo-American Community; Least Competent Criminals • Life Imitates a Drew Barrymore Movie; Weird Science; Questionable Judgments • Questionable Judgments; Great, ahem, Art! • Fine Points of the Law; Thank Goodness for Narcissists • Cliches Come to Life; First Things First; Fine Points of the Law • News That Sounds Like a Joke; Suspicions Confirmed; Yikes! • Catch-22 Catches Disabled Veteran; The Continuing Crisis; Best Not to Ask Why
© 2011, Chuck Shepherd. Distributed by Universal Uclick |
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