Party bus overflows; Thumbs down to Canada; 'Your mic is still on'; The Don Draper effect; Keeping it down low
'Your mic is still on'
WINNIPEG — Police in Winnipeg were red-faced recently after an incident involving a helicopter and an open mic. Officers on a routine helicopter patrol inadvertently activated the aircraft’s public address system while having a private conversation — and a lewd one at that. News of the R-rated conversation took off on Twitter as city residents who could hear the conversation took to social media to urge the police to turn off their loudspeaker, according to Reuters. “Does the #Winnipeg chopper realize the entire West End can hear their convo about blow jobs right now?” tweeted one person listening from her backyard. When the police became aware of the situation, they immediately turned the system off. “Some content of the conversation was inappropriate. The involved members were not able to hear the public address system from within the aircraft,” said the police, who are reviewing the incident.
Party bus overflows
VICTORIA — Bus drivers have to be prepared for all kinds of abuse when it comes to rude or unruly passengers. But one Victoria driver recently found herself facing a new kind of assault as she was driving a double-decker bus downtown on a Saturday night, according to the National Post. A group of 40 passengers on the upper level, who had had too much to drink, started vomiting and urinating. “That fluid, as the operator was pulling into one of the stops, starting to leak down onto her head, face, as well as her eyes and onto her clothing,” said Ben Williams, president of BC Transit’s union Unifor Local 333. The driver then called the transit supervisor, who took her to the hospital to have her eyes flushed and her blood tested for infections. The following Monday, the driver had not reported the incident to police but BC Transit said it was carrying out its own investigation. “It’s obviously an extremely stressful situation,” said Williams. “You can’t really prepare someone to have such an awful situation happen to them.”
Thumbs down to Canada
FAYETTEVILLE, ARK. — Canadian musicians Celine Dion and Justin Bieber may be huge musicians, but they’re not that popular with Walmart employees in the United States, according to the Washington Post. At the company’s annual general meeting, executives announced a CD on loop in the stores — featuring Dion and Bieber, among others — would be ditched, to be replaced by Wal-Mart Radio, where a DJ spins tunes that are pumped through the stores. The change is among several planned by the retail chain to boost employee morale while also improving customer service, including a boost in wages, a more relaxed dress code and changing store temperatures.
The Don Draper effect
NEW YORK — When employees imbibe a little too much, the next day can be especially hard. But the Hangover Club in New York City provides a solution: It sends nurses with intravenous hydration and other medicine to relieve people in homes and offices with a hangover. The service, which delivers IV electrolytes, headache and nausea medicine and various vitamins, can cost up to US$250, according to CNN Money. Since his service began nine months ago, co-founder Asa Kitfield says business has doubled every month and in May, there were about 300 IV drips. So, which industries need the most nursing? Advertising tops the list, followed by finance, corporate law, Internet/media and, lastly, public relations, found a survey of 500 of the club’s clients. These fields are centred around entertaining clients, said Kitfield, who was formerly in advertising. “When clients have big budgets with you, they want to be entertained,” he said. “The same thing goes for finance and these lawyers. We would go out pretty hard and the next day would be rough.”
Keeping it down low
JERUSALEM — Despite being considerably elevated in their jobs, female flight attendants for Israeli’s national carrier are looking to lower their “stature.” The women are unhappy with El Al’s directive around high heels. Under an old policy, female attendants were required to wear high heels at the airport, but could change into flats on the plane before passenger boarding. Now? The airline wants the women to stay in the heels throughout boarding, according to the Associated Press. The directive to wear “presentable shoes’’ is standard in aviation worldwide, said El Al, but the workers’ union has told the flight attendants to ignore the order. The airline’s stance was “aggressive’’ and the policy would impact the flight attendants’ safety and health, said the union. Female Israeli lawmakers and a women’s group also called on the airline to dump the policy.
