Table talk
What they'll do to lay their hands on a British model
Americans may soon be able to visit London without even leaving their home country, if a plan to build a snapshot of the British capital in Las Vegas comes off. The idea is to build a hotel featuring everything a visitor would expect to see in London without the associated hassle and jet lag. It would include models of the London Eye, the Tower of London, Covent Garden, Marble Arch and even a replica of the Houses of Parliament. We guess it was inevitable that the USA's gambling Mecca, which already has themed resort hotels based on Paris, Venice, Egypt, Ancient Rome and even Lake Como in Italy, would eventually set its sights on London.
Shock-horror survey! Men like sex!!!
An astonishing survey published by hotel chain Novotel has found that men are more likely to watch adult movies and make passes at staff than women. The survey, conducted across 27 hotels in Australia and New Zealand, also revealed that men are more likely to be found outside their rooms naked. And while most are caught out when putting out their room-service trays, when it comes to excuses for being caught out, most blame their wives for having the key. Sadly, even those travelling alone.
Steamy surprise for the coffee constabulary
If table Talk were to offer an award for the most pretentious idea of the week, it would have to go this week to new Web site www.coffeepolice.com. The idea behind it is that anyone who has bought a bad cup of coffee can log on and complain. Launched only last month, it has already been inundated with offences ranging from serving stale coffee, coffee too hot, coffee too weak, and, in one incredible instance, pouring a cool latte back into the milk jug and steaming it up again. What a dastardly crime.
It's got a nobody-home page
Meanwhile, the award for the Web site most likely to receive no visitors goes to the newly launched www.abim.org.uk, the site for (brace yourself) the Association of Bakery Ingredient Manufacturers. Can't wait to log on to that one.
Women can enjoy making a pass, too
Male football fans, move over. The De Vere Whites hotel, part of Bolton Wanderers' Reebok Stadium, has launched a Footiefor Females two-night package costing £145 per person. Women taking up the offer will enjoy a candlelit dinner overlooking the stadium, a sports-style massage, a footballers' nutrition-aware lunch and evena macho pie-and-a-pint at half-time. And while the women are busy enjoying the game, what can their male partners do to pass the time? The hotel suggests a day of shopping in Manchester.
We call them "cringers" - you can guess why
And so to some more interesting adaptations of the English language. Early's, the Oxfordshire company that supplies hotels with blankets, has decided that, from now on, these should be called "bed dressing". And Travel Inn, which has just introduced refunds for unhappy customers, is apparently referring to them internally as "invocations", as in invoking a refund.
