Honolulu Lite
BEFORE we get into the usual bathroom-level humor that inexplicably has begun to dominate this space, some good news for smokers who eat raw fish. According to a Reuter's story out of London about a Japan study that could have major implications in Hawaii (how's that for international coverage?), eating large amounts of sashimi may reduce the risk of lung cancer in smokers. Fishy study a
comfort to smokersJapanese smoke as much as Westerners but have only two-thirds the risk of cancer. Researchers say it's gotta be the raw fish. The study didn't say what impact eating smoked fish would have on lung cancer, but you have to wonder. And what about Asahi Beer?
Now the news:
Water, water everywhere
PHNOM PENH (Reuters) >> Cambodia's first public toilets have debuted, a move by the city to discourage residents from defecating on sidewalks and in parks. The mobile toilets, which are free, began roaming the city about two weeks ago and 10 more will be mobilized before the annual water festival in November.(Roaming toilets? Sounds like a bad science fiction movie. Actually, there currently are only two mobile toilets carried around on trucks. Tens of thousands of Cambodians will show up in Phnom Penh for the water festival. With those odds, expect the water to win.)
Admiral Nelson's lament
LONDON (Reuters) >> London is to set up open-air urinals to stop the rot that is threatening one of the city's move famous tourist attractions: The National Gallery in Trafalgar Square."Night-time revelers, waiting at a bus stop outside the gallery, have been relieving themselves against the new wing," said a Westminster City Council spokesman. "Much of the West End is now blighted by this type of anti-social behavior."
The new partially-enclosed lavatories, based on a French model, are being rushed into service.
(What French model are they talking about, Catherine Deneuve? I never knew she invented toilets. Suggestion from America: Spend the extra bucks, enclose the WHOLE lavatory. Tourists will thank you for it.)
Weekly weird Web site: This week's site is more wacky than weird. In fact, it's the home of the Wacky Patent of the Month (www.colitz.com/site/wacky. htm). June's wacky patent belongs to a guy who invented a kind of helicopter pogo stick. As you jump, a blade spins over your head lifting you higher and, theoretically, landing you gently back to earth. If you've got no problem with a hellishly sharp blade spinning just inches over your head, it looks like a cool way to travel. Other patents were issued for a harness so a monkey could ride a Greyhound dog and for a 1912 device "to prevent dogs from worrying sheep." That device, appears to be several fishing hooks that hang from a sheep dog's nose, which, if I was a sheep, would make me very worried.
Quote me on this: "Some mornings, it's just not worth chewing through the leather straps." Emo Philips.
Alo-Ha! Friday compiles odd bits of news from Hawaii
and the world to get your weekend off to an entertaining start.
Charles Memminger also writes Honolulu Lite Mondays,
Wednesdays and Sundays. Send ideas to him at the
Honolulu Star-Bulletin, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., Suite 7-210,
Honolulu 96813, phone 235-6490 or e-mail cmemminger@starbulletin.com.
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