Here’s this week’s compendium. This week…
1. tennis player Lleyton Hewitt and his wife charged fans A$2 for the wondrous privilege of finding out the name of their newborn child [1a]. Is there no limit to the greed and bad taste of so-called celebrities. Anyway it’s Ava [1b]. Big whoopee.
2. the Corruption Perceptions Index 2010 was announced [2a]. Canada’s 6th best, Australia 8th, UK 20th, USA 22nd. [2b]. Israel’s 30th and Iran 146th. Ho hum.
3. consumer magazine Choice announced its 2010 Shonky Awards – for the shonkiest products and services [3a, 3b]. Ho hum again.
4. Mohammed (spelt various ways) was the most popular name for newborn boys in England and Wales in 2009 [4]. This ended Jack’s 14 years as number one.
5. austerity measures were announced for the 2011 Australian F1 Grand Prix [5]. The best one of all would be to cancel the bloody thing.
6. low-dose aspirin was confirmed to help prevent bowel cancer [6a]. Lifestyle choices are effective too [6b].
7. and heavy smoking was shown to double the risk of various types of dementia [7]. Is there no limit to the downsides of smoking.
8. Sweetheart Vivienne participated in the Melbourne Jewish Book Festival [8a, 8b]. Apparently she aced it. I wish I was there.
