Cultural Pastimes and Hobbies by beth

AFRICA
FROG SUCKLING
What a way to score with the babes! An August in Zimbabwe: it was reported that a tycoon was driving around town, giving lifts to women in his Mercedes Benz. When the woman was safely ensconced, the man proceeded to pull a large frog from his briefcase and force the woman to breastfeed it. The object of the proposal: to improve his business prospects. The offensive tycoon’s business plans were foiled by the hospital reports of several women who, in a blind terror, had been injured by jumping out of the expensive moving vehicle. (Fortean Times 128)

JAPAN
THE HANDMAIDS TALE
“In November 1995, Japan's Economic Planning Agency, in an annual report, called on Japanese husbands to participate more in family activities. Agency surveys estimated that 85 percent of husbands "never" help their wives with household chores, and that younger women, knowing this, are increasingly declining marriage, resulting in a falling birth rate that alarms the agency.” Erm, and that’s a problem? source

INDIA
WARM HEARTS, CLOGGED LUNGS
Bangkok, Christmas time
In the city of suicidal traffic situations, the holiday has adult xmas wish lists full of bicycles and skateboards. Thai authorities were dispatched to patrol the horrific tides of cars and in return, mountains of gifts began to appear at busy intersections. “If you ask anybody, you will be pleasantly surprised to learn that these piles of goodies are gifts left there by grateful drivers for the traffic policemen, who have to work for long hours in the midst of heavy pollution.” While Delhians urge other cities with the same sort of traffic trouble, to extend such “heart warming” gestures, I wonder at that little comment about the heavy pollution.
source:Quotes from S L Aggarwal, Delhi

GERMANY
Wuerzurg, January 2000: A 23-year-old German woman whose infection with Lassa fever has touched off a virus scare died at a hospital Saturday after a weeklong battle with the tropical disease, doctors said.
Everyone here who has read The Hot Zone, please raise their hand. And Run.

ENGLAND
COLUMBINE SHIRT TALES
Northhamptonshire, January 2000 – A senior citizen was arrested after walking into an elementary school and taking the deputy headmaster hostage with a plastic gun. He demanded the headmaster call the authorities and when the authorities arrived, the man had no motive for his behavior. The media assures us that no children were harmed in the making of this frantic plea for notoriety. And need I reiterate: a plastic gun.
source