FLASH LITES: RIP ‘N’ READ POP CULTURE RECAP
FLASH LITES: RIP ‘N’ READ POP CULTURE RECAP
LAS VEGAS (Wireless Flash) – The usually-busy Las Vegas wedding industry has been down in the dumps since last week’s terrorist attacks. Officials at Sin City’s marriage license bureau say applications from brides and grooms are down a whopping 40 percent.
BIRMINGHAM, England – Caution: Speeding hamsters ahead. A hamster was spotted running in his plastic exercise ball alongside a stretch of Britain’s busy M6 motorway. Motorists alerted the RSPCA, which picked up the pet and took it to a refuge in Birmingham where it is currently resting.
NEW YORK – Robert DeNiro is ferrying hot food from five-star restaurants to emergency workers in New York via a fleet of luxury yachts. Daily Variety reports the chef at DeNiro’s TriBeCa Grill came up with the idea for the unique delivery service to avoid the rubble-crowded streets.
ROSEMONT, Ill. – More food-related news: McDonald’s estimates it has served more than 250,000 meals to disaster relief workers at its mobile restaurants at “Ground Zero” in New York and the Pentagon since last Thursday.
LONDON – Rats in Britain have developed a taste for seafood. Zoologists report the rodents have recently discovered how to dive for, shell and eat freshwater mussels. It’s feared the new and plentiful food source could lead to an explosion of the rat population in the next few years.
LONDON – Catholic confessional booths in England and Wales will soon be upgraded into sound-proof, see-thru clear glass boxes. The Church is making the switch after a series of child sex abuse cases inside the wooden confessionals.
WASHINGTON – Michael Jackson isn’t the only person coming out with a song about last week’s attack on America: Republican U.S. senator Orrin Hatch is composing one too, titled “Americans United.” Hatch has written dozens of patriotic tunes, including “America Rocks” which was used in the film Rat Race.
SAN FRANCISCO – America’s Elvis Presley obsession may have gone too far. Next month, Chronicle Books will publish an Presley box set that contains reproductions of the King’s old pay stubs, an auto insurance form and his 3rd grade report card.
MOMBASA – Bad smells are driving away tourists in the resort town of Mombasa, Kenya, after angry trash collectors dumped mountains of garbage – including a dead goat – in the town. The workers say the local government owes them three months wages.
DUBLIN – Ireland’s oldest woman has died at the ripe old age of 107. Annie O’Donnell was born December 8, 1893, and died over the weekend at her family’s home in Northern Ireland. The country’s next oldest woman is now believed to be Annie O’Malley, who turned 107 on Monday.