FFWD Weekly
Copyright © 1997. All Rights Reserved.
SPLICE
by FFWD StaffSigns of the Apocalypse
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The Paranoid's Pocket Guide
Have you ever considered what might be living on your telephone receiver? Or do you worry about being struck by lightning on the golf course? You should.
The Paranoid's Pocket Guide: Hundreds of Things You Never Knew You Had to Worry About! (Chronicle Books) by Cameron Tuttle is a collection of facts, stories and photographs that will make you think twice about leaving your house - but then again, each year you face a one in 13 chance of suffering an accident in your home serious enough to require medical attention.
· Saliva is a steady source of nutrients to microorganisms living inside a telephone mouthpiece.
· Lightning kills approximately 300 Americans every year - more than any other type of natural disaster.
· If you sneeze too hard, you can fracture a rib. If you try to suppress a sneeze, you can rupture a blood vessel in your head or neck and die.
· One in 6,500 Americans will be injured by a toilet seat during their lifetime. Most will be men.
· Over two million physical assaults and 7,000 homocides occur in the workplace each year.
· Rats multiply so quickly that in 18 months two rats could have over a million descendents.
· One in three men over age 60 will suffer from impotence.
· Your hands are crawling with bacteria, microorganisms and viruses that can lead to disease - every time you touch a bar of soap, a faucet handle or a bathroom doorknob, you pick up more germs.
· More people working in advertising died on the job last year than died while working in petroleum refining.
· One in three men cheat on their partners. One in four women cheat.
· Hackers infiltrate Pentagon computers more than 160,000 times a year. Roughly 65 per cent succeed on their first try.
Underground Surrealist
The tenth edition of Underground Surrealist Magazine takes the historical record of the French surrealists and fills it in with an imaginary story by publisher and cartoonist Mick Cusimano. Set in motion by the chance encounter of a very inept chicken who leads the ambassador's daughter on a strange adventure with cameos by Andre Breton, Marcel Duchamp, Max Ernst, Leonora Carrington, Antonin Artaud, etc.
The magazine also features Hippy Steve Gets Lucky, Joseph Cusimano: Metaphysical Surrealist Artist, several surreal photos, cartoons and illustrations, a surrealist poem, artwork, places to visit, suggested readings, etc.
The magazine is $3.25 Canadian and can be ordered from Mick Cusimano, Your Professor of Surrealism, PO Box 382565, Cambridge, MA, 02238-2565, USA. Or, e-mail or check out the Web site.
Workaholics
· Almost one-fifth of all employees, an average of 1.9 million people, worked paid or unpaid overtime during the first quarter of 1997.
· About 1.1 million adult men worked overtime compared with 686,000 adult women and 155,000 youths aged 15 to 24.
· Of those employees who worked overtime, almost 6 in 10 did not receive overtime pay.
· Those who did not get paid worked an average of 9.2 overtime hours, compared with 8.5 hours for those who did get paid.
· By 1995, only 54 per cent of workers put in a 35 to 40-hour work week, down from 65 per cent in 1976. Over the same period, the proportion of workers putting in fewer than 35 hours a week rose from 16 per cent to nearly 24 per cent, while the proportion of those usually working 41 hours or more per week rose from 19 per cent to 22 per cent.
· In the first quarter of 1997, one quarter of all those working overtime were employed as managers, mostly without pay for the extra hours.
· About 37.5 per cent of teachers worked overtime, the highest proportion of any occupation. Teachers who worked overtime put in an average of 11.4 hours a week, almost all did not get paid for it.
· Almost a quarter (23.9 per cent) of employees in machining occupations - such as tool and dye makers, welders, woodworkers, and others - received paid overtime, the highest proportion of any group.
· Miners put in almost 16 hours of overtime on average in any given week in early 1997, the most of any group.
· Underemployment: In the first three months of 1997, the proportion of all workers who were involuntary part-timers was just over six per cent, or about 852,000 individuals. (Involuntary part-timers are people who worked part time in their main job for fewer than 30 hours a week and wanted to work longer hours. Involuntary part-time workers who looked for full-time work are considered "underemployed".)
· Moonlighting: Between 1976 and 1996, the number of workers holding a second job more than tripled, from 208,000 to 699,000. In 1996, 1 in 20 workers, or five per cent, held more than one job. Twenty years ago the rate was 1 in 50. The average work week for moonlighters was 46.2 hours.
The previous statistics are part of a Labor Force Survey quarterly report for Statistics Canada.
Web watch
This week marks the birthday of the self-described gonzo heavyweight champion of the world.
Hunter S. Thompson - known for his original style of subjective, personal writing now dubbed "gonzo journalism" - was born July 18 in 1937 or 1939 (depending on your source) in Louisville, Kentucky. He had a crime-filled youth, joined the Air Force as part of his parole and wrote newspaper articles before writing his first book, Hell's Angels: A Strange and Terrible Saga, about his year living and riding with the motorcycle gang. He has since written other well-known books including the classic Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream, The Great Shark Hunt, and others.
Thompson's home is Owl Farm, a fortified compound in Woody Creek, Colorado. He ran for sheriff of Pikin Country in 1970 on the Freak Power ticket, but lost narrowly to the incumbent. He was also the subject of the cult movie Where the Buffalo Roam, starring Bill Murray.
The Great Thompson Hunt homepage on the Web has complete information on Thompson, his life, his works, his style of journalism, etc., as well as well-known posters and images, pics of his books, recent photographs, book reviews and critiques, interviews, talk show appearances, trivia and more. There are also lots of links to other Thompson-related sites.
Free stuff
Fast Forward has two free movie tickets with popcorn and pop for two to The Van, as well as a complimentary copy of the book. The Van is the third story in the Barrietown trilogy by Roddy Doyle and the movie opens Friday, July 18 exclusively at the Globe Cinema. To win, be the first person to show up at The Book Company in Bankers Hall and name the previous two books in the series, which were also made into movies.
We also have five double passes to Kissed, showing Wednesday, July 23 at 9:30 p.m. and Thursday, July 24 at 7:30 p.m. at the Uptown. The film, directed by Canadian Lynne Stopkewich, stars Molly Parker as a young woman with a preference for dead young men. To win, drop by FFWD with a donation for the food bank.
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