Table Talk

Don't get caught playing with your food Stuck for an idea to boost takings on those quiet nights of the week? How about following the brainwave of Steve Fugill in Leicestershire, who, in an effort to pull in extra punters to his roadside snack bar, has put a selection of sex toys on the menu. Over the past few months the toys have attracted a loyal clientele to the van - parked on the A4303 south of Lutterworth - with both male and female customers eager to try out the new menu. Saying that business was slack at this time of year, Fugill has defended his new sideline, adding that he stores the toys out of view during the school holidays. "At the end of the day, we are just trying to earn a living," he says. "This country is so far behind Europe, where you can buy these things from a garage or supermarket."

It's all or nothing for the Governator California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is taking a leaf out of Jamie Oliver's school exercise book. He wants to ban all junk food in California schools and fill vending machines with fresh fruit, vegetables and milk. "We in California this year are introducing legislation that would ban all the sale of junk food in the schools," Schwarznegger said during a Q&A at a body-building event named after him. His comments came when asked how he plans to combat youth obesity. But the Terminator's idiosyncratic grammar may not have accurately described legislative developments. Schwarzenegger's chief of staff, Pat Clarey, later added: "I wouldn't say we're going to ban all junk food. We are just looking at additional bills that will deal with snack food at high schools… we're looking for healthy snacks."

Cookie monster lands a job
A motorised mannequin with an insatiable appetite for biscuits is the latest invention at McVitie's. Experts at the manufacturer's laboratory in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, have developed the Crumb Test Dummy to test exactly which baking techniques produce the most crumbs. With two rows of plastic teeth, the biscuit-scoffing robot is designed to imitate a human eating. "The crumbs produced by a biscuit show how well it has been cooked," explained a McVitie's spokesman. "We haven't yet found a human who can test on this scale, but the Crumb Test Dummy has a never-ending appetite and doesn't need to stop for breath."