News Of The Weird
- Details
ENTREPRENEURIAL SPIRIT
High Point University (just south of Greensboro) is not quite Club Med (“Club Ed,” it was called by the Chronicle of Higher Education) but provides free ice cream for students, a hot tub in the middle of campus, wake-up calls and a concierge service, all run by a campus “director of WOW,” whose job it is to thrill the “clients” and attract new ones. This is the strategy of President Nido Qubein, a motivational speaker and “customer comes first” businessman, and so far, enrollment is way up (even at higher tuition), new construction is transforming the campus, and $100 million is in the bank.
LEADING ECONOMIC INDICATORS
The U.S. government’s $100 billion stimulus distributed to taxpayers this spring achieved mixed results, according to economists, but at least the Internet pornography industry flourished (according to a July trade association spokesman). Adult Internet Market Research Co. reported that “20 to 30 percent” of “adult” Web sites reported that sales rose during the time checks were being issued. However, Nevada brothels were suffering, even though Hof’s Bunny Ranch ran a stimulus-check special: Hand over your $600 check and get the usual $1,200 “party” (“three girls and a bottle of champagne”).
ROARING DEAFNESS
After complaints by neighbors, police went to an apartment in Framingham, Mass., in July to quell a raucous screaming match between two women who, it turns out, are deaf.
In Crawley, England, in July, police were called to a supermarket to break up a fight between two grandmothers, who were ramming each other in their mobility scooters.