Watercooler Stories

Study: So maybe money can buy happiness

LONDON, July 9 (UPI) -- People who bring home bigger paychecks have more personal happiness than those who do not, a new British study has found.

Economic researchers asked a number of individuals with assets of more than £100,000 ($200,000) about their attitudes toward money, their saving and spending habits and the impact of wealth on their lives.

Women were shown to get more satisfaction than from their personal wealth than men get, The (London) Sunday Telegraph reported. Many of the women surveyed said their wealth had improved their physical health, given them more leisure time and increased job satisfaction.

Men preferred to spend their wealth on personal trainers, chauffeurs and chefs, the study found, while women tend to hire services such as personal shoppers, bodyguards, stylists and private doctors.

Pastor wants bottoms banned from billboard

NEW YORK, July 9 (UPI) -- A New York pastor is fighting the installation of a billboard near his church that would feature several naked buttocks with smiley faces on them.

Times Square Church Pastor Neil Rhodes said featuring the nude bodies on a billboard above his church would not exactly be conducive to a spiritual environment, The New York Post said.

"You walk into a church building, you have naked bodies before your eyes -- how are you going to close your eyes and seek God?" Rhodes said. "It's wrong as far as we're concerned."

The controversial advertisement is for the Washlet, a toilet seat that washes and dries a person's backside.

Rhodes' church is trying to get a court injunction against the billboard. The presiding judge in the matter was expected to rule on the bare bottoms case Monday, the newspaper said.

Sleeping equals productivity in Germany

BERLIN, July 9 (UPI) -- German government officials say they are being encouraged to take daily naps to increase productivity and overall efficiency.

Parliament member Holger Wutti initiated the new measure based on recent sleep research, The Sunday Telegraph reported. The politician said it could limit the number of sleepy government officials on the nation's payroll.

"Of course, we don't want a sleeping administration," the Social Democrat said. "But a short nap is improving efficiency and also prevents burn-out.

"After consulting various studies we opted for the power-napping concept which is to improve the overall health, as well as the productivity of civil servants."

The new job measure will soon begin in Berlin's Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf borough to determine the effectiveness of the power-napping strategy, the British newspaper said.

Once booming, tourism in Crawford dwindles

CRAWFORD, Texas, July 9 (UPI) -- Crawford, Texas, which once enjoyed a tourism boom due to its proximity to U.S. President George W. Bush's ranch, isn't getting as much tourist trade lately.

The Bush memorabilia business was booming in 2004 in the town of fewer 800, The Houston Chronicle reported. Sales of shirts, caps, refrigerator magnets and other presidential memorabilia began to slow in 2005, shop owners say.

Bush is scheduled to vacate the White House in 18 months, so the prospects for Bush memorabilia sales are looking dim, the newspaper said. Also, the president is posting lower-than-ever public approval ratings.

Bill Johnson, owner of Crawford's largest gift shop -- The Yellow Rose -- said he has begun stocking less Bush merchandise and replacing it with more Texana and Americana items.

"We're changing our mix," he said. "As a business we have to do what we have to do to be successful."