Table talk

Eye up? You'll be down blinking quick

Ever wondered what would happen if someone had a heart attack or needed urgent medical treatment on the great ferris wheel of the London Eye? Well, we have news for you. If necessary, the operators can speed up the Eye's rotation and get someone down from the top in 10 minutes - considerably faster than its normal movement, which is so slow as to appear near-stationary to any ground-based observer. "Not only can we speed it up but it can operate in both directions, so we can bring them down the quickest way," said a spokeswoman. "Luckily, we haven't needed to do it yet."

A real sting in the tale

A restaurateur in The Netherlands recently invented an exotic scorpion dish - and nearly killed herself and her colleagues. Michele Keijers thought she would impress her customers with the spicy meal. The scorpion was killed humanely, the poison neutralised and the dish prepared in hot sauce. Luckily for the customers, Keijers first tried it on herself and two co-workers at Cocoloco, her Mexican restaurant in Breda. She told Dutch paper De Telegraaf: "It was just as I imagined - like lobster and very spicy." But three hours later, all three needed hospital treatment after they started to vomit, shiver, hallucinate and suffer heartbeat disturbances. After she returned to her restaurant, Keijers said: "It was a very special culinary experience. I'm glad I've done it, but it isn't the sort of experience one can offer to clients. Once and never again."

Give me your arm, old toad/Help me down Pearson Park road

The Pearson Park Hotel in Hull appeared in the hallowed pages of the Times Literary Supplement last week. The hotel had put up a sign in reception stating that poet Philip Larkin used to live nearby. It regularly plays host to Philip Larkin Society dinners and one lady persuaded manager Ann Smith-Brady that such a sign could increase business. So has it? "Difficult to tell," Smith-Brady admitted, "but I believe a lot of his best writing was done when he lived by the Park. And people are always asking about him." Sounds like a literary pilgrimage site.

But will ingredients be available at 1413 prices?

The hoo-haa created in some sections of the national press about the "newly discovered" 500-year-old Noble Book of Royal Feasts in Longleat House, Wiltshire, had Longleat archivist Dr Kate Harris a bit bemused. "It has been here for about 200 years," she said, "and we've been working on producing a facsimile edition for some time." The new edition, out next year, will give chefs the opportunity to recreate Henry V's coronation feast, including fried roach, perch, carp, lamprey and conger eel, although the roast swan will be off-limits.

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer… had sunburn

ALF Garnett's wife - "Why don't they have Christmas in June when the shops are quieter?" - would have been at home at the Vibes bar in Bristol last week. Decked out in Christmas decorations, the bar was used as a set for a festive episode of the BBC's hospital drama, Casualty. The Beeb obligingly drafted in 200 regular customers to fill the dance floor. Manager Andrew Roberts said: "We know many of the cast and were delighted to help."