Fans face boot for eating or drinking wrong brands at games
By MARK FRANCHETTI / The Sunday Times They're all mad save me and thee - and I've my doubts about thee...
In a far cry from the high-minded ideals of humanity and tolerance embodied by the Olympics, the organizers of the Athens games have warned spectators that they could be barred for taking a surreptitious sip of Pepsi or an illicit bite from a Burger King Whopper. Strict regulations published by Athens 2004 last week dictate that spectators may be refused admission to events if they are carrying food or drinks made by companies that did not see fit to sponsor the games Sweltering sports fans who seek refuge from the soaring temperatures with a soft drink other than one made by Coca-Cola will be told to leave the banned refreshment at the gates or be shut out. High on the list of blacklisted beverages is Pepsi, but even the wrong bottle of water could land spectators in trouble.
Fans will be allowed into the Olympic complex if they are drinking Avra, a Greek mineral water owned by Coca-Cola, which paid $60 million US for the privilege of being one of the main sponsors. Officials are under orders not to let in rival brands' bottles unless the labels are removed. Staff will also be on the lookout for T-shirts, hats and bags displaying the unwelcome logos of non-sponsors. Stewards have been trained to detect people who may be wearing merchandise from the sponsors' rivals in the hope of catching the eyes of television audiences. Those arousing suspicion will be required to wear their T-shirts inside out.
#1
If this is true, it represents the height of product placement silliness. People should completely boycott the Coca Cola products and arrive with unlabeled beverage containers for all events. What horsesh!t.
#4
I am anxious to see the bill and cost overruns for getting the Athens Oleolympics finished to meet the deadline. If the Greek govt covers it up, someone will find out. Then it will be interesting to see who signs up for future events and is willing to blow the public purse to hell.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
08/11/2004 17:07 Comments ||
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#5
Then it will be interesting to see who signs up for future events and is willing to blow the public purse to hell.
EFL
A dispute over a pushcart escalated into a bloody battle when two men engaged in a "sword fight" using two-by-fours inside Home Depot, police said. On guard! You vermin scum. How dareth you betroth my cart. Harkin there, say, ah, are those sixteen penny nails in your pocket?
One of the combatants required hospital treatment after the fight, which broke out around 10:30 a.m. Sunday at the Cumberland Mall store. Why, how come?
Larry Bostic, 52, of West Park Avenue received eight stitches in his chin, police said. One of his teeth was knocked out and another tooth was cracked. That should do it. I must say, though, that I find the two-by-four a tad cumbersome. They may want to work in rattan, next time.
Police arrested Bostic and Wei Sun, 45, of Upper Darby, Pa., on assault charges. Bostic told police he asked a Home Depot employee for a pushcart so that he could load some two-by-fours. The employee told him to take a cart that contained some wallboard because it had been in an aisle for a while, according to police. And, the wallboard would look dashing on the two-by-fours.
As Bostic began to load his lumber, however, Sun appeared and demanded the cart back, police said. Witnesses said both men then swung their fists at each other but missed. Two men fighting over a shopping cart. How gay. Two men sword fighting...get a room guys.
Then each grabbed a two-by-four and began a sword fight, police said. It ended when Sun threw his wooden board at Bostic, hitting him in the chin, witnesses told police. Thus restoring the original luster to an otherwise charming atmosphere of drinks and merriment.
Posted by: Dragon Fly (on vacation) ||
08/11/2004 8:14:54 AM ||
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#1
Zed: Bring out the Gimp.
Maynard: But the Gimp's sleeping.
Zed: Well, I guess you're gonna have to go wake him up now, won't you?
Posted by: Chris W. ||
08/11/2004 9:26 Comments ||
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#4
Bostic told police he asked a Home Depot employee for a pushcart so that he could load some two-by-fours. The employee told him to take a cart that contained some wallboard because it had been in an aisle for a while, according to police.
As Bostic began to load his lumber, however, Sun appeared and demanded the cart back, police said.
A couple of things:
1. Even if a pushcart has been sitting somewhere for a while, if it has some item(s) on it, it probably belongs to someone. There's more than enough room for doubt there, so why touch it or even suggest touching it?
2. Why couldn't this Bostic guy have gone out to go look for an empty cart on his own? Why bug an employee about getting an empty cart? I've been to Home Depot before, and I always grab a cart as I go in, especially if I know what I'm planning to buy, and if I'm going to get it in bulk quantity.
Sun might have overreacted a bit, but apparently Bostic got what was coming to him, what with the stitches and the missing tooth...
A few months ago I brought in a cart to get some sheetrock & such but I had to go to the return aisle first. Some little foreigner walks by and grabs my cart! I start givin' him the Yosemite Sam treatment for about 15 feet but he predictably keeps walking, playing the Dumb ForeignerTM routine and pretending not to notice me. It's kinda hard not to note my voice, especially if I'm yelling at you - more than one friend thinks I could do an admirable stand-in for one of the SNL's Loud Family members.
Wanna play that way? Fine...
I go get another cart, get my electrical stuff and head on over to grab my sheetrock & such. I see the little foreigner load about 10+ items on to the Cart Formerly Known As Mine, so I keep gathering my stuff. Once I'm done I move my new cart off nearer to the cash registers (for the quick getaway) and return to my former cart. Freddy Foreigner turns the corner to go get some more stuff for the Cart Formerly Known As Mine, so I grab the cart and walk it well out into the garden section, about 150 yards away from the lumber section.
Since I'm so into this schadenfreude thing, I walk back to the lumber section only to see Freddy Foreigner looking around for his cart. My day made, I grab my (new) cart & cash out.
#18
Muck, after your comment yesterday, I'd surrender my cart to you even if it was loaded to the hilt with my stuff. You don't carry that Glock around do you??
Posted by: Rafael ||
08/11/2004 14:50 Comments ||
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#19
ima not have cc permit so itn stay at home. i was thinkin aply for one but em glock 22 kinda hevy for that. i wuld need make another trip to em gun sho.
The EU newcomer Estonia was accused of amorality and gross historical insensitivity yesterday after it allowed veterans of the Nazi Waffen-SS to parade through its capital Tallinn. The event saw veterans of the 20th Estonian SS division attend a church service, lay flowers at a war memorial and attend a celebratory concert. The planned unveiling of a memorial to Estonian SS troops was cancelled at the last minute, however, and is not now expected to take place until the autumn.
#2
Thw worm will turn one day. Knocking dead Jews is risk free for these yokels...Baltic countries keeping poking Russia in the eye, however...this will be remembered by a future Czar...
#3
"Many Estonians regard the SS veterans as freedom fighters who fought alongside the Germans to stave off Soviet occupation"
-things I've read would suggest the same. Just about the whole 20th SS was anihilated by the commies during the battle for Estonia. I can't say how much this particular SS group participated in attrocities. There's a misconception that every SS division ran concentration camps or were involved in attrocities - though I don't know enough about the 20th SS to say one way or the other.
#4
Depends. The Waffen SS (war SS ) were primarily military units, but that is not to say they did go outside their military mission, but I would guess the SS in 1944 was too busy trying to stay out of SMERSH's custody to go engage in local pogroms.
Here is a page about them, albeit I can't read German. It appears the 20th SS were local Estonian volunteers to the SS. There were an awful lot of similar combat formations operating with the German army under the SS banner, Frogs, Belgians Dutch, southern Slavs; all fielded SS units and on the eastern front during WWII.
#5
Badanov> IIRC they were part of Germany's whole legionare movement w/the walloons, flemish, & even norwegians making up SS units. I think about a million non-jerrys were in the SS at one time.
From iafrica.com
A Pakistani man declared he had "no regrets" as he allegedly confessed to killing his sister for marrying her second husband, police said on Friday ... "We have arrested Ashiq Ali after he allegedly killed his sister Sabhai as he was angry over her divorcing her first husband and marrying another man," Shikarpur police officer Fida Hussain Mastoi told AFP. "The accused has confessed his crime and told investigators he had no regrets over killing his sister as her actions tarnished family honour."
Sabhai, a mother of three aged in her 40s, was shot dead by her brother Ali on July 14 in Karan village in southern Pakistan, some 600 kilometres southwest of Islamabad. Ali, arrested on July 16, has been charged with murder. He told investigators that his sister had left her first husband and married another man against her family's will about a year ago. Ali said he was under pressure to punish her because she had flaunted the family's will. He can be freed by court if his relatives pardon him, the police officer said. ....
More than 4000 Pakistani women have been killed by their husbands, brothers and fathers since 1998, according to Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayat, on the pretext of shaming or violating the honour of their families, hence the term "honour killings." ....
Ruling party MP Salim Jan Mazari caused an uproar in the parliament in July when he spoke out in defence of honour killings of girls who marry against their family's will, saying it was a tribal tradition that should be preserved. "It is impudent on the part of those girls who flee their homes and marry on their own will. If we don't treat this as karo kari (violation of honour) then what should we do?" Mazari said.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
08/11/2004 10:03:39 PM ||
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From Compass Direct
Police disrupted a Christian marriage ceremony in the Eritrean town of Senafe on Sunday, July 25, and arrested 30 guests and members of the wedding party. Charging in and demanding a halt to the ceremony, police officers ordered everyone who was not a "Pente" (a derisive abbreviation for "Pentecostal") to leave the place immediately. Many of the guests did so, but the 30 evangelical Christians who remained were hauled off to a police station. Yesterday, all but two of the prisoners were released after signing a document promising not to participate in any evangelical Christian wedding in the future. Police continue to hold an evangelist, identified as Michel, of the Kale Hiwot church and Teame Kibrom, a man in his 80s. Officials declared the two responsible for the wedding that allegedly defied a government ban on evangelical church activities. More than 400 evangelical Christians are currently jailed by the Eritrean government, including prominent pastors Rev. Haile Naizgi, Dr. Kiflu Gebremeske and Tesfatsion Hagos.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
08/11/2004 12:14:24 AM ||
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#1
I used to like Eritrea -- those plucky Eritreans fighting off Mengistu and the commie hordes and all. Lately I'm wondering if I did the right thing. Someone needs to 'plain things to the guys running this country, like how we're not completely opposed to the Ethiopians having access to the Red Sea.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/11/2004 0:34 Comments ||
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#2
Sad indeed to see this sort of thing in Eritrea. I have no insight into underlying dynamics, but speculate that the Orthodox Christian/Muslim entente in Eritrea is intolerant of new players.
I travelled in Eritrea in 1995 -- for vacation -- and it was one of my best trips ever. The beautiful and friendly people, the food, the ridiculously low prices (5 cents for espresso out of impressive old Italian machines -- almost anywhere), the diverse and gorgeous scenery, the abundance of old Soviet-design armor on which to play and take photos -- it was a great combination.
Oddly enough, I was in Senafe. Not likely, as it's barely a wide place in the road (not even that, now, I suspect, as it was the last place reached and trashed by Ethiopian forces in the two countries' last ridiculous war some years back). Far to the south, only reason to be there were the Axumite ruins nearby. Though the drive down reminded me of some of the more spectacular parts of the American west.
Does Rantburg have an obscure destination award? After this Senafe comment and a similar one appropriate to a Caucasus-related post wherein I described a work trip to South Ossetia some time ago, I wonder if I'm leading in having been to some of the more obscure locales featured in articles here.
#5
Anbody know whether infibulation is still widely practised in Eritrea? Just curious...a Christian Copt sect in this part of Africa used to inflict this "procedure" on women.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
