Watercooler Stories

Minister issues memo on likes, dislikes

LONDON, Nov. 17 (UPI) -- A Cabinet minister in Britain told his staff when they should serve him coffee and soup, among other personal expectations, his memo to them reveals.

Liam Byrne's 11-page memo explained exactly how they should behave toward him, The Sunday Telegraph reported.

"Coffee/Lunch. I'm addicted to coffee. I like a cappuccino when I come in, an espresso at 3pm and soup at 12.30-1 p.m.," the memo said. "The room should be cleared before I arrive in the morning. I like the papers set out in the office before I get in. The white boards should be cleared."

Byrne warned his staff if he sees things "that are not of acceptable quality, I will blame you."

Last month, Byrne, was promoted to Prime Minister Gordon Brown's Cabinet, where he is responsible for coordinating government departments.

"This is not a briefing note for civil servants -- it's a briefing note for slaves. Making sure the minister gets his cappuccino on time and his soup piping hot is apparently more important than how the country is being run," Tory Member of Parliament Philip Davies said.

No ban on nudity in Seattle parks

SEATTLE, Nov. 17 (UPI) -- The Seattle Parks and Recreation board has decided the city is large enough and diverse enough to include those who like to bare it all in public.

Parks commissioners have dropped an effort to have those who go nude in the parks charged with criminal trespass, The Seattle Times reported. They even said they will ask officials to consider making one of the public beaches clothing optional.

A large crowd attended Thursday night's meeting, a spokeswoman told the newspaper. Most of them, apparently, opposed criminalizing nudity.

The plan was introduced after police received complaints about the World Naked Bike Ride July 12. The event, publicizing dependency on oil, began in Gas Works Park, where the riders stripped to the buff and painted their bodies before taking off on a ride through the city.

Dewey Potter, the parks spokeswoman, said Seattle has no laws governing public undress. Washington state bans public nudity only if it offends someone or is considered a hazard.

Spam sales up as economy heads down

AUSTIN, Minn., Nov. 17 (UPI) -- One factory in the United States has been busy for months as the rest of the economy slows down -- the Hormel Foods plant that makes Spam.

The factory in Austin, Minn., has been operating two shifts a day seven days a week producing the canned lunch meat, The New York Times reported. Workers, with all the overtime they can handle, have been told the long hours are likely to continue indefinitely.

Dan Bartel, a business agent for United Food and Commercial Workers Local 9, told the Times that Spam "seems to do well when hard times hit." The lunch meat is reasonably priced protein, if not gourmet food.

Other budget food items are doing well. A spokeswoman for Safeway said sales of rice and beans are up and surveys found that pancake mix and beer sold well in October.

"We'll probably see Spam lines instead of soup lines," Bartel said.

Freemen of Oxford admits Freewomen

OXFORD, England, Nov. 17 (UPI) -- The Freeman of Oxford, a group dating back more than 1,000 years, has begun admitting women, following the lead of similar English societies.

In the old days, when the Freemen were recorded in the Domesday Book, membership conveyed rights and privileges such as being able to trade in the town and to have a say in its political affairs. Now those privileges, passed down from father to son or master to apprentice, are limited to the right to fish in parts of the Thames and to graze cows in Port Meadow.

Helen Cox, one of the first women admitted, said she felt she had to join because her father, Chris Butterfield, worked to change the rules.

"My friends think it's a funny old tradition," she told The Independent. "I'm not a farmer and I don't fish, and it's not really my social scene so I don't get a lot of benefits from joining, but it's more about equality and about making a statement that women can be Freemen too, or Freewomen. I'm not sure what the correct term is yet."