Interesting Facts

New guidelines for school pupils in England state that only phrases starting with "what" or "how" merit an exclamation mark! (This means that children who use punctuation marks in written tests will be penalised unless they adhere to strict rules. I mean, I know I ask people not to use them in every sentence, and to stick to one, but really, this is way too prescriptive. Irk the purists!)

Over the last 2 days, the Hanson Academy in Bradford, West Yorkshire, has sent 215 pupils home for not adhering to school uniform rules. (The school wants pupils to dress in a blazer, smart shoes, trousers, and shirt with a correctly-tied tie, they also need to wear an id badge on a lanyard around their necks (I wonder if they have risk assessed that). The infringements included - wearing hoop earrings, the wrong kind of trousers / jackets, no tie, no id, dyed hair... Please feel free to join any of our Virtual World English sessions and dress as you like, as long as you're dressed.)

A new law in Spain would require Spanish children under the age of 18 to be respectful to their parents and teachers, and have a positive attitude towards learning. (They will also be required to help out with housework, regardless of age and gender", the ABC newspaper says. The rules come under a section of the law called "the rights and duties of children". I guess that as most laws are written by men, they decided that if they have to do housework, everyone does (see previous fact). The new law doesn't say what the penalties would be for children who refuse to comply.)

The taxman looks set to be granted the right to break the speed limit in the UK. (At present only the emergency services; police, ambulance and fire, are allowed to break the speed limit, but under new rules other groups will be included: bomb disposal units, the blood transfusion service and mountain and mine rescue teams, oh and the aforementioned taxman.  The taxman - the fourth emergency service.)

A restaurant in Oldham removed toothpicks from the tables over fears that customers would stab their mouths or dislodge fillings (A diner was told by a waiter that new health and safety rules had been applied, but he went on to complain to the Health and Safety Executive and it ruled in his favour. It said: “There is no health and safety regulation which stops toothpicks being handed out in a restaurant.” Toothpicks are now back on the tables. Misunderstanding about Health and Safety rules have got so out of hand, that an HSE Myth Busters Challenge Panel has been set up. They even have their own web site. "Who ya gonna call?") Source

Scrabble has announced that under new rules, proper nouns will be allowed in the game. (To date the rules have been clear, place names, people's names and the names of companies or brands don't count. But now a whole new world (literally) of opportunity has opened up. I can imagine the new arguments that will arise on spelling, and validity.   We need a proper nouns dictionary.)