Jockstrip: The world as we know it

Workaholics champions between sheets

WASHINGTON, Aug. 22 (UPI) -- A U.S. study finds workaholic men are champions in the bedroom.

Louisiana Tech psychologist Jonathan Schwartz and his colleagues tracked almost 100 couples who were willing to keep detailed records of their sex lives for a year.

"We are surprised because previous research indicated that wives of men who worked every hour in the day complained about the quality of their relationship," Schwartz told the Sunday Times of London. "But as far as I can see no one asked them about their sex lives, and those are surprisingly healthy."

The researchers found that confidence appears to be a sexual stimulant, at least for men. Both partners reported less satisfaction in relationships where men feel intellectually inferior to their wives or girlfriends.

The study was reported at the American Psychological Association's annual convention.

Schools' definition of supplies expands

WASHINGTON, Aug. 22 (UPI) -- The list of back-to-school supplies for U.S. students has gotten longer, in part because schools are asking for items like paper towels and tissues.

"Parents across the country are finding that the lists get longer all the time," said Anna Marie Weselak, president of the National PTA. "Budgets are being cut so schools are looking to supplement shortfalls."

Weselak said schools want parents to not just provide school supplies for class, but also cleaning supplies, "right down to the toilet paper," the New York Times reported Sunday.

In addition, parents are being asked to pay extra for items that used to be free like towel fees for physical education classes.

Britons put off by haunted houses

LONDON, Aug. 22 (UPI) -- A British TV show has so spooked the public of ghosts inhabiting houses, a poll finds some home buyers may require a "new-age cleansing" before buying.

Since the program "Most Haunted" began airing two years ago and the team sought out ghosts in places across the Britain, more and more are believing in "spooks and superstitions," reported the Sunday Telegraph.

A poll commissioned by Lloyds TSB found half of the respondents believe in ghosts and say they would not buy a house if they thought a ghost might be inhabiting it.

The survey also found a fifth of the 2,000 home buyers would only buy a house in which things went bump in the night, if an exorcism or "new-age cleansing" took place.

A person dying of natural causes in a home put off 39 percent of prospective buyers, while a 47 percent thought better of buying a house next-door to a cemetery.

New Islamic swim wear making waves in Turkey

ISTANBUL, Turkey, Aug. 22 (UPI) -- A Turkish columnists' review of new Islamic-code bathing suits has touched off a debate about what women wear on Turkey's beaches.

Reha Muhtar wrote in the Sabah newspaper about the bathing suits she saw while visiting Turkey's Aegean coast -- two women diving off a yacht, covered in a body suit with a vest and hair bonnet.

The Los Angeles Times reports the debate in Turkey over the suits is not politics, but fashion.

Muhtar called the scene she witnessed "bizarre."

Colleague Ahmet Hakan wrote in the Hurriyet newspaper the suits were "silly, tasteless and weird."

The suits are used by Muslim women who keep with the tradition of covering themselves in front of males.

It's making waves, however, in a country that has banned the head scarves for women in government institutions and schools and features beaches at posh hotels where women, usually segregated from men, wear skimpy bikinis, sometimes without the top.