Watercooler Stories

Owner closes gas pumps in protest

MEQUON, Wis., May 25 (UPI) -- A Wisconsin gas station owner has shut off his pumps in protest of high gas prices.

Harvey Pollack of Mequon, Wis., says he is losing money but his customers at Town Market Mobil are behind him, WTMJ-TV, Milwaukee said Thursday.

The pumps were turned off at midnight Wednesday, and Pollack says they will stay off until midnight Friday.

At least two other Wisconsin gas station owners have stopped selling gas permanently, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel said Thursday.

Jeff Curro turned off the pumps at his Shell station in Brookfield, Wis., last Friday when he was asked to pay $3.44 a gallon while competing stations down the street were selling gasoline for $3.47.

"Three cents a gallon doesn't cut it," Curro said. "It doesn't pay the bills."

Irish couples waiting longer to wed

DUBLIN, Ireland, May 25 (UPI) -- Ireland's Central Statistics Office said an increasing number of couples in the country are waiting until later in their 30s to get married.

Figures released by the office show that the average age for a man to get married in Ireland was 33 in 2005, and the average age for a woman to wed was 31. Those ages were a marked increase from 1996 when they were 30 and 28, respectively, The Irish Times reported.

"Many people also choose to live together for a number of years and a decision to get married may be based on the intention to have children," said clinical psychologist Marie Murray.

She said people may get married due to educational opportunities and the cost of housing, the newspaper reported.

"And people also become accustomed to a particular lifestyle, with only themselves to consider; it may be a lifestyle with significant experiences, including travel, that were not available to previous generations," she said.

Statistics revealed that an increasing number of Irish citizens are choosing civil marriages over church weddings. More than 22 percent of marriages in 2005 were civil marriages -- five times the number in 1996.

Links in ads trip up Web site creator

LONDON, May 25 (UPI) -- The creator of a British Web site that allows people to create tributes to dead friends and relatives has apologized for inappropriate ads.

Terry George said he turned to Google Ads because he wanted to make his site, www.gonetoosoon.co.uk, self-supporting, The Daily Mail reported. He learned the hard way that the ads were linked by key words.

That meant ads for the discount airline RyanAir showing up on sites for people named Ryan, a motorcycle advertised on the page for a man who died in a motorcycle crash, and self-defense classes touted on a page dedicated to two girls who were abducted and killed.

The worst may have been the ads for baby products on pages remembering dead babies, The Daily Mail said.

George told the newspaper that within hours of ads going up on his site he was working with his staff to take them down.

"I feel sick to the stomach after reading most of your comments," he said in a posted comment. "It was never meant to be like this. I have tried so hard to make this site work and work for free for so many vulnerable people."

Tajikistan moves to limit ritual spending

DUSHANBE, Tajikistan, May 25 (UPI) -- A conference in Tajikistan has approved a resolution limiting the amount that can be spent on weddings and funerals.

Tajik President Emomali Rakhmonov called lavish spending by families on sad or joyous occasions "an immoral and wretched practice," Itar-Tass reported. He said he has received 20,000 e-mail messages supporting the measure.

Total spending on weddings, funerals and mourning ceremonies has escalated to the point where residents of the central Asian country spend more than the entire national budget of about 3.3 billion somoni (just less than $1 billion) every year, the president said.

The bill, "On Order of Observing National Traditions and Rituals," was approved almost unanimously by a conference of 2,000 local administrators, art and culture experts and religious representatives. It would limit the number of guests who can be invited to weddings and the number of cars, as well as the number of dishes served at funeral feasts and the number of ceremonies to be held.

Rakhmonov said the limits are in line with Tajik customs and Muslim religious practices.