To lose one finger may be regarded as a misfortune...
Here's a story going around the web under the title Random Acts of Lunacy. A chef at a hotel in Switzerland recently lost a finger in a meat-cutting machine. After a little hopping around, he submitted a claim to his insurance company. The company, suspecting negligence, sent one of its men to have a look. He tried the machine out and lost a finger as well. The chef's claim was approved.
Costa Brava farmers promote spanish whine
While some wine growers are forced to struggle against poor harvests and pesky parasites, a group of Spanish farmers is wrestling with another problem - what the boom in British tourism has done to their once-beautiful coastline. A group of growers has become so fed up with the negative connotations of using the name Costa Brava on its products that it wants to drop it entirely, according to a report in the Guardian. One Spanish source reckons the once-glamorous name of Costa Brava now "suggests apartment blocks, massed tourists, and puke outside discotheques".
A quiet smoke really does mean a quiet smoke
Following the implementation of a smoking ban in Ireland, the Merrion hotel in Dublin has introduced a "silent garden". Smokers were going out into the garden for a puff but their noise was waking up fellow guests. Now there are signs on the tables that read: "You are welcome to smoke and drink here, but please do not talk." So far it's worked a treat.
Never mind the arrows, pass me that rock cake
More than 300 people took part in the World Black Pudding-Throwing Championships at the Royal Oak pub in Ramsbottom, Greater Manchester, this month. The event attracts participants from as far away as Australia. Entrants throw black puddings in an attempt to knock Yorkshire puddings from a wooden shelf 20 feet up the pub's wall. They have three throws in which to knock down the most Yorkshire puds. It's said that black pudding-throwing originates from the 15th-century Wars of the Roses between Lancashire and Yorkshire. When both armies ran out of ammunition, they threw food at each other... or so the story goes.