A Stranger's London
Watch your handshake
Doctors can learn a lot by shaking your hand. It can even help them to establish if you could be at risk on the operating tables. The stronger your grip, the better your chances.This is the conclusion of research at Southampton University where Dr Stephen Karran, senior lecturer in the department of surgery, found that more than three-quarters of the patients who were to develop surgical complications had grips which fall below a threshold strength.
Groom switches to wife's name
Bride Christina Cager did not want to be plain Mrs Smith after her marriage. so her husband-to-be changed his name to hers.Alan Smith, a fireman, is now Alan Cager and he says: "Smith is a name that can cause problems, particularly when you are booking into hotels you can get funny looks".
Alan's name change did not meet with approval from Liberal MP Cyril Smith. "It's a grand name, this lad should have been proud of it."
Anti-caning mother
Two teenage boys kept away from school for nearly a year because their mother refused to let them be caned, have been ordered to be taken into custody. Education authorities applied for the care of the boys after their mother had refused to send them to another school where they would not be caned.The solicitor told the court "the care order was solely to ensure that the boys receive a full time education. There appears to be little prospect that the mother will return them voluntarily".
That's love
Mr John Evans could never accept that his son Nicholas had deliberately killed himself by jumping in front of the train. Not even when an inquest decided that he had committed suicide.So for 15 traumatic months he investigated all the circumstances surrounding his son's death, interviewing his friends, digging up new evidence, even re-enacting the tragedy,
Recently, his efforts were rewarded when a second inquest decided that Nicholas had not killed himself, and recorded a verdict of misadventure. A pointless exercise? Some may say so.
But would not most of us count ourselves fortunate to think that there is somebody who cares enough about us to fight for our name and reputation even when we are dead?
Single-mothers on the rise
Britain is currently at the top of the ladder in Europe for unmarried mothers. One in six mothers is unwed when she has her child. And experts warn that if this trend continues by the turn of the century more children would be born illegitimate than to married parents.According to London University psychologist John Nicholson published in News of the World there seems to be three main factors to this unprecedented rise in single-motherhood. First on the list is accidental pregnancy. Despite more family planning help than ever before, it seems accidents happen with alarming frequency.
Secondly, there is a tradition among Caribbean people for the woman to have their boyfriend's children without first being married. And some of that tradition has been brought over to Britain by West Indians.
Thirdly, there is the "Feminist Factor" in the illegitimate baby boom where middle class career girls with independent views want a child but not a husband.
The gloom projection, therefore, is that by the year 2000 more than half the babies born in Britain will be illegitimate.
Check the booze
It is official - a million British families have a problem drinker in the house. And alcohol abuse, now the third largest killer after heart disease and cancer, costs the country a staggering 1 billion a year in lost working hours.To help systematic tipplers check their drink ratings a London weekly has drawn up a chart: Take as one "standard" drink a half pint of beer, a glass of wine or single measure of spirits then total your weekly intake.
Men drinking up to 20, women up to 13 can relax because there is absolutely no long term health risk. At the bottom of the chart if men drink more than 96 and women more than 64 then their physical and mental health-liver, brain, heart or nervous system-will be deteriorating.
Mistaken identity
Consolation for the wretched BBC radio reporter who mistook the Dean of Peterhouse for the Archbishop of Canterbury this week, and rushed back to Broadcasting House bearing a scoop interview with the wrong man. It's all happened before, reports Nigel Dempster in his Mail Diary.When the urbane Nawab of Pataudi returned from India having lost an eye in a car crash, the BBC would not trust the interview to a sports reporter, preferring the skills of an ace "hard news man" "Do you speak English?" demanded the hack.
"Yiss, I try spik Englis for famous BBC", replied "Tiger' Pataudi, who continued in this vein in pure Peter Sellers pidgin-speak for four minutes.
