Contents
Nature and Nurture
Hedgehogs on a Diet
This is a porcupine.
Microsoft Clip Art doesn’t
understand about hedgehogs.
This is possibly a good example of ‘there is only one country in the world that this would happen’ type of story. And that country is not Greece! In the UK, fourteen hedgehogs that became ‘too fat to protect themselves’ are now being released into the wild after having been put on a diet. The hedgehogs were residents of a Scottish Wildlife Rescue Centre, and during the cold winter had to be kept indoors. Ordinarily hedgehogs hibernate when it’s cold, living off their fat reserves, but these hedgehogs were being kept warm, and according to the Centre manager, when hedgehogs don’t hibernate, all they do is eat. These hedgehogs got so fat that they were unable to roll themselves into a ball (which is their usual protective strategy against foxes etc). ‘What were they being fed on?’ I hear you ask. Cat food, it would seem. ‘And why wasn’t their diet being regulated in the first place?’ I also hear you cry. Well, it’s not that simple, apparently. According to Colin Sneddon from the Centre, hedgehogs are just like people: “If you put two together you’ll get one that will eat all the food and go and sleep and the other one will be running round trying to find some food and lose all its weight.” So, not all the hedgehogs were obese, then…. Anyway, the newly trim and slim hedgehogs are now about to have their first taste of the great outdoors, and are being set free into a large garden at Pitlochry Festival Theatre. Good luck guys!
Battling with Yoghurt
Many of you may have come across this story already, but we felt that it would have been a real crime not to have included it in this edition of the Bugle. A Greek man is suing a Swedish dairy for 50 million kroner (which is quite a lot of euros) for using his photo as a promotional image on tubs of Turkish style yoghurt. Athanasios Varzankos / Minas Karaztoglu (the name varies according to whether you refer to BBC News or BBC World!) is pictured in traditional dress as worn by his grandfather and great-grandfather when they took part in the uprising against the Ottoman Empire in the 19th Century. Athanasios / Minas claims he was completely unaware of the fact that the photo was being used to promote Turkish yoghurt and is somewhat ‘annoyed’ to put it mildly. He has now filed a 40 page legal complaint (so he is really, really annoyed!) saying that the dairy had used a misleading image because he has no links with Turkey. The dairy on the other hand claim that they bought the photograph in good faith from an image library and that they were entitled to use the photograph. As the BBC pointed out ‘relations between Greece and Turkey have long been strained (‘strained’ and ‘yoghurt’? Ouch!) and at times have turned into outright hostility’. Yup. Wars have been started for less….
A Driving Lesson with a Difference!
‘Driving on Crete’. These words conjure up a myriad of colourful images but also send shivers down the spine. A drive from the North Coast to the South Coast of the island will take you through some of the most spectacular scenery in Europe. But, put it this way, ‘Road Safety’ is an oxymoron as far as many Cretans are concerned. The vibrant, joyous, fun-loving, passionate ‘live for today’ attitude characteristic of our island friends does have its downsides! Here in Rethymnon, driving can be particularly gruelling, especially on market day. Double parking, the ‘what’s the point of traffic lights?’ scenario (which is probably why very few of them actually work) and the view that indicators are an optional extra all contribute to this unique experience. During high season we have the added dimension of lost tourists in rental cars doing unexpected U turns at the most inopportune moments.
However, we shouldn’t be too ready to point the finger as this story from Oxford, UK (aka ‘The city of dreaming spires and screaming tyres’) will illustrate. Last month, a learner driver brought her second driving lesson to a dramatic end in Old Road, Headington (a suburb of Oxford) when she flipped her instructor’s car onto its roof. Luckily neither the learner nor the instructor were seriously hurt, and the learner is apparently keen to book her next lesson (with the same instructor? Perhaps not). According to Russ Dunne, standing on his nearby doorstep talking to a political candidate at the time(!), there was the sound of a car accelerating, followed by a loud bang when it hit a gatepost. Then the car rolled over. The instructor got out of the car saying “Accidents happen” (this we find faintly worrying).
Why is the picture of the shark here? Well, the shark of Headington lives only a couple of streets away from where this extraordinary driving lesson took place. PS. Where was it that the editor comprehensively screwed up her first driving test? You’ve guessed it….
