Lead Story
Among cities that have mile high clubs: Hayward, California; Santa Monica, California; Meriden, Connecticut; and Cincinnati. For fees ranging from $199 to $279 a pilot flies a couple around for an hour so that they can have sex while airborne.
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New products: toe floss (invented by Ronald M. Hannon), a rope that attaches to the floor of a shower and is held taut, permitting the user to clean between the toes; a tiered cocktail waitress “dress” that holds 250 canapes, from designer Bruno Ferrer; a 30-inch-tall, porcelain-headed doll of Indiana University basketball coach Bob Knight in his signature red sweater and Converse sneakers, from doll maker Tom Alberts, for $545; and a line of toilet-seat lids in the shape of guitars (electric and acoustic), starting at $49, from Marvin Maxwell of Louisville, Kentucky.
Among the crime-protection products now available through the mail are Dyewitness, a canister of green foam that will make an assailant look like a Chia Pet, and Rapel, a foul-smelling liquid that victims spray on themselves to fend off would-be attackers.
In October Gary Taylor filed a formal charge of discrimination against the city of Austin for firing him, allegedly because he’d filed a complaint against the city’s electric utility department over what he called “painting.” According to Taylor, painting is a departmental “abusive sexual hazing ritual” in which workers gang up on other employees on their birthdays or a special occasion, pull down their pants, and spit on their genitals.
