Jockstrip: The world as we know it

BURBERRY BANNED IN SOME PUBS

A woman who carried a Burberry umbrella and bag was turned away from a Scottish pub because bouncers thought she was tied to a football gang.

The distinctive Burberry plaid has become fashionable not only with business people and journalists but with Scottish thugs. Many Aberdeen bars refuse entry to those wearing them.

The woman tells the Glasgow Daily Record, "It's absolutely ridiculous and I think they took things too far. There was no way I would have caused any problems in the pub."

Pub manager Maureen Lethorn says, "We have had a number of incidents where people were wearing Burberry, it's not a general ban but we don't want rowdies so we judge each case as it comes along."

OVER-COMPLICATED HOTEL ROOMS

In an effort to meet their customer's needs, many hotels are fast to jump on the latest technical gizmos for their guests.

Many of the amenities, however, are too complicated for guests to master during a one-night stay.

While the bathtub shower control in most homes has an easy-to-maneuver hot and cold handle, invariably a hotel shower will have an impossible-to-calibrate joy stick resembling those in fighter jet cockpits, the New York Times reports.

Hotels are filled with impossible-to-understand remote controls for television, DVDs and clock radios that most fear they cannot program correctly and will "miss the big meeting in the morning," as a result.

'QUEER EYE GUY' WORTH 'MILLIONS'

Ted Allen, nationally known food expert and taste guru, has turned into a cottage industry after he became one of the Fab Five on Bravo's hit "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy."

Allen's represented by the William Morris Agency, where a manager boasts Allen's new TV fame is worth "millions," reports the Chicago Tribune.

In addition to the cable program and appearances tied to it, Allen has two book deals, one for a style how-to with the Fab Five due out in February and one on his own to create a food book for 2005.

HYPNOBIRTHING HELPS WITH PAIN

Hypnobirthing involves giving birth while in a relaxed state of hypnosis -- something gaining in popularity.

Dr. Lorne Campbell of Wyoming County Community Health Center says eliminating the fear that has come to be associated with natural childbirth is the most important step, reports WGRZ-TV in Buffalo, N.Y.

He says when a mother is afraid, certain chemicals are released in the body that inhibit blood flow to the uterus, creating tension in the muscles -- and pain.

The American Medical Association has not endorsed hypnobirthing, but it does endorse the use of hypnosis and any birthing method that helps the mother have a positive experience.