Table talk
Just pillow talk, or the ramblings of a madman?
A large pillow arrived in the post accompanying Holiday Inn's marketing literature, which boasted of its ability to offer "not just a good night's sleep, but a great night's sleep". The chain is now offering guests "pillow menus" of medium or firm synthetic, goose or duck down natural pillows and "a local pillow such as a sausage- or bolster-shaped pillow." Perhaps Holiday Inn's marketing people have been suffering a few sleepless nights themselves. They gravely inform us that sleeplessness "can affect our ability to think, communicate and make decisions". Yet their relentless, detailed ramblings about "a dark night, a quiet night, a cool night" all come in a folder with a photo of a butch-looking woman in Dr Marten boots throwing one leg up in the air with her head locked to one side as though she'd just spent a night roughing it under Waterloo Bridge.
McRex ribs and fries with dinosaur dip, please In 1997, McDonald's helped the Chicago Field Museum to acquire the largest and most complete skeleton of a Tyrannosaurus rex. After a successful national travelling educational exhibition called A T Rex Named Sue, the museum showed its gratitude by presenting McDonald's corporation with a cast of the dinosaur's skull. A group of Chicago schoolchildren dressed in T rex costumes attended the unveiling of the skull in a special ceremony last week.
Pork scratchings? Oh, they're ‘good for the carpet' A studt has found that student houses contain 30 times as much grime as that found on the floors of local pubs. One square metre of carpet in a student house contained 2.5kg of dirt, the report revealed. Despite regular spills of cigarette ash, beer and pork scratchings, pub carpets tested contained an average of only 72g of dirt. Chris Tullett, marketing manager of the Vax vacuum cleaner manufacturer, which commissioned the research said: "One mother we asked said her two teenage sons only knew where the vacuum cleaner was stored because they have to reach over it to open a cupboard where the crisps are kept."
So now what do we put in our ears? While tourism minister Kim Howells was congratulating the industry on its progress at the Restaurant 2001 Annual Business Conference, he said: "Our eating habits have changed out of all recognition in recent years. It wasn't so long ago that you could only get olive oil in chemists, and you certainly wouldn't have used it in your cooking." Any takers for a brand new cuisine based around cod liver oil?
And you can take those baked beans off the menu Viva City, a new caf‚ bar in Liverpool, has promised that "it will bring the sights, sounds, tastes and smells of the world's top cities to drinkers and diners". The caf‚ bar smells will emanate from a state-of-the-art aroma box similar to the one used in the Millennium Dome. General manager Andrew Fox said: "Throughout the day the smell in Viva City will change, to suit such things as the type of food being served, the city currently being featured… or just the mood of the customers." Let's hope they're in a good mood.
