Subscribe | UPI Odd Newsletter Subscribe BLOOMBERG CUTTING PERKS New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is putting the city's educational bureaucracy on notice: cuts are coming, and private offices are going. Advertisement Bloomberg, flush with victory in grabbing control of the 1.1-million student public school system from the New York City Board of Education, began spouting ideas in rapid-fire fashion, the New York Daily News reports. "The first thing is ... no cars for the members of the new board, no staffs, no private offices, no salaries," Bloomberg said of the new board, which will be more advisory in nature. The mayor says he wants to take money away from the administrative bureaucracy and put it back in teaching. Staff, salaries and perks for the seven-member citywide Board of Education total more than $4 million a year, or $580,934 per member, according to the Daily News. Advertisement Bloomberg vowed to install barrier-free work stations, like the "bullpen" he and his staff use at city hall, throughout the system's central headquarters, now located in Brooklyn. "If I ever saw an organization that you want to open up, you've got that one right," Bloomberg said of the board of education's central staff, which now numbers some 2,980 workers. "I'm not a pig, and I don't want to sit in a pen," one 10-year board of education veteran commented to the Daily News. "Who wants prying eyes seeing everything you're doing?" a 30-year board accountant said. The mayor also wants to move the board of education from Brooklyn to the newly renovated Tweed Courthouse, located right behind city hall. BIRD VS. GIRLFRIEND Peter Johnson raced downstairs when fire broke out in his home in Britain and saved his rare African Orange named Gismo, leaving his girlfriend behind sleeping in bed. The unemployed 42-year-old birdlover says the first thing he thought was not to save himself or his girlfriend but to save the parrot, the Web site Ananova says. "My first priority was Gismo -- it sounds stupid but she is my baby as I have no kids, but my girlfriend was not very happy about it," says Johnson. Advertisement Johnson's home was wrecked by the blaze but he and his 33-year-old girlfriend, Sharon Flaherty, escaped without injury. However, since last week's fire, Gismo has not spoken a word. Her repertoire usually includes "hello," "good morning" and "how are you" as well as Peter and Sharon's names. Johnson said the bird's not talking, or flying around the room, because she's in shock. No word on what Flaherty is saying. LAUNDRY AT THE SUPERMARKET British supermarkets are planning, literally, to take the shirts off of people's backs.Sainsbury's is offering a new laundry service that promises to have clothes cleaned and ironed during a grocery store visit, The Independent News, in London, reports. The supermarket will offer a one-hour service, for which it will charge less than $5 to iron a shirt. To have trousers or a skirt "refreshed" will cost less than $10. Whether shoppers will be able to disrobe in the store, shop in semi-nakedness and then put on clean clothes again is unclear. Perhaps those skimpy hospital-type gowns will be provided. The laundry plan is being tried out at seven London stores before the United Kingdom's second-largest supermarket group decides whether to spin it out at more of its 463 outlets. Advertisement Consumer groups are concerned this latest supermarket innovation is another blow to traditional small stores such as greengrocers and butcher and bake shops. The British National Consumer Council says, "This is just another way that supermarkets are expanding their ever-increasing services and influence. It's a further step on the road to the one-stop shop, which is going to have serious knock-on effects for smaller businesses and local communities."
