OTHER NEWS

DOGS OKAYED AS RING BEARERS BY CHURCH OF ENGLAND

NEWS, AUSTRALIA - Dogs are being entrusted with a ceremonial role in
their owners' weddings, with some pampered pets wearing outfits matching
the bride and groom.The dogs perform their duties in tuxedos and bow
ties, in silk dresses encrusted with costume jewelry and in bespoke
collars made of flowers.

Church of England priests have been given the power to include dogs in
the wedding service. A spokesman said: "While it would be inappropriate
for a dog to replace (the) father of the bride, there would be no
sensible grounds for objecting to it taking the role of ring bearer."

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,20509961-13762,00.html

||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

TREE HUGGER - Many of the rich have "garden fatigue" and are paving it
over. According to the Wall Street Journal, "Here's what's on the way
out in landscaping: grass, flowers and trees. Frustrated by extreme
changes in the weather -- floods this year, droughts last year -- some
homeowners are simply giving up. They're replacing ferns and palms with
lifelike fakes, pulling up the sod and putting down stone, concrete and
other types of paving, and drastically shrinking planting beds". . .
"Early this spring, businessman Kim Melrose spent $25,000 having the
yard of his home in Rancho Mirage, Calif., torn up so it could be paved
with cream-colored concrete, textured to look like travertine stone. His
yard has a pool, a covered barbecue, a kitchen with a dishwasher, a
two-burner cook top, a stainless-steel sink and bar with granite
countertop -- and not a blade of grass. "It's so easy to take care of,"
says Mr. Melrose." Forget about the fact that flooding and drought are
exacerbated by non-absorbent paving, that is someone else's problem.
More room to park the hummers.

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2006/10/paving_over_gar.php#perma

||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

GREAT MOMENTS IN CULTURAL CONFLICT

NEWS, AUSTRALIA - A self-professed druid priestess has said a Melbourne
bar refused to let her in because of her age and the mistaken belief
that she was Jewish. Morgan, 51, who uses only one name, has told the
Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal that crowd controllers at
the Cushion Lounge in bayside St Kilda denied her entry when she went
there about 1.30am on Monday, December 12 last year. But the staff and
the bar's manger claim a private function that night was the reason for
refusing entry.

Former manager and part-owner Daniel Centofanti said he could not prove
there was a function booked because he had sold the business in May,
along with his bookings diary, which had since been lost. Mr Centofanti
denied his business was discriminatory, though its regular Saturday
night crowd was young "trendsetters" in their 20s and 30s. "One of my
head promoters was Jewish, my bar staff and customers were a mix of male
and female, homosexual, heterosexual, metrosexual," he told the
tribunal. Mr Centofanti said Morgan phoned him the day after the
incident and told him she had "made a lot of money from venues like us".
Morgan denied this.

The St Kilda local said she went to the bar to retrieve her 15-year-old
son, who was due home by midnight. Security footage shows him leaving
the bar sometime after midnight, then being refused re-entry and leaving
again before his mother arrived. Morgan said security staff stopped her
from entering and allegedly asked, "Haven't you got an X-box or a
vibrator at home to keep you happy?". She said another guard told her
"You're a Jew" after seeing her necklace displaying a wiccan star. "I
said to him, 'I'm a pagan, like your people'," she told the hearing. . .
The guard, Clay Auimatagi, told the hearing he would never make an
insensitive religious comment but had asked whether the star was a
Jewish symbol to defuse an argument between Morgan and another guard,
Michael Almatrah. Mr Auimatagi said Morgan was swearing at the other two
security guards and they were "giving it back".

Morgan said she felt threatened so she performed a ritual "evoking the
guardians" to protect her. She said the crowd controllers mocked her
ritual.

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,20528817-421,00.html

||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

TEXAS ART TEACHER FIRED FOR TAKING STUDENTS TO MUSEUM WITH NUDE STATUE

NBC 10, TX - An award-winning Texas art teacher who was reprimanded
after one of her fifth-grade students saw a nude sculpture during a trip
to a museum has lost her job. The school board in Frisco has voted not
to renew Sydney McGee's contract after 28 years. She has been on
administrative leave. . . The Fisher Elementary School art teacher came
under fire last April when she took 89 fifth-graders on a field trip to
the Dallas Museum of Art. Parents raised concerns over the field trip
after their children reported seeing a nude sculpture at the art museum.
. . McGee, who was honored with a Star Teacher Award two years ago, is
on paid administrative leave until her contract with the school district
expires in March.

http://www.nbc10.com/education/9936513/detail.html

||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||