Table Talk
Exalted individuals shouldn't have to deal with money
A top banker was left red-faced after he was forced to admit he didn't know his PIN number. HBOS chief executive James Crosby had just enjoyed a meal at Martin's, in Rose Street Lane, Edinburgh. A waitress who asked Crosby to tap his PIN into the hand-held device was met with a stony silence, after which the embarrassed bank boss was forced to admit: "I don't know it." A spokesman for HBOS said: "Even the best of us occasionally forget our PIN numbers. But what is important is that we do not share our PINs with anyone else."
No sex please, we're being responsible Greene King has told landlords in its 750 managed pubs to stop selling cocktails with names such as Sex on the Beach, Legspreader and Slippery Nipple. The move has surprised some, since three years ago the brewery was criticised for using a picture of a woman having an orgasm in its adverts for Abbot Ale. The caption read: "Some things get better given longer." But a spokeswoman for the Suffolk-based brewery explained the ban by saying: "It is our policy to advertise alcohol in a responsible manner and never associate it with sexual promiscuity, machismo or antisocial behaviour."
It's not a bruise, it's a reddening of the skin
An employment tribunal has been told how a masseur at the Sanderson hotel in central London left three clients "severely bruised" after over-vigorous treatments. It was claimed in the tribunal that Brian McGuinnes's "unique" technique left one client at the hotel's spa with 10in bruises around his spine. Following "numerous" warnings, the five-star hotel eventually sacked McGuinnes. He denies hurting his clients, saying that the three customers suffered a reaction to his massage that reddened their skin and looked like bruising. In four years' working at the hotel only three out of the 4,000 guests he had treated showed any symptoms, he said. Treatment by a female colleague caused a similar reaction in a guest and no action was taken against her, he claimed. The hotel denies unfair dismissal and sex discrimination. The case continues.
