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Beggars Feel the Crunch

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How tough are the times? A fancy New York restaurant called the Quilted Giraffe has added a new item to its menu: Recession Purses. They’re like the QG’s menu item called Beggar’s Purses, only the folded crepes hold turnips and cabbage instead of caviar and aren’t garnished with gold leaf. (They sit on marinated sirloin, though.)

Tami, Home of the Air-Dried Garfish

People of the Tami and Siassi islands of Papua New Guinea sometimes fish by making a kite out of palm leaf and attaching it to a cord that ends in a ball of spider web. Then they fly the kite so that the web trails on the surface of the water. A garfish is attracted to it, becomes entangled and takes a kite ride to dinner.

These Callous Modern Times

Le Royanette (distributed by Liberty Richter Inc., of 400 Commerce Blvd., Carlstadt, N.J. 07072) makes hazelnut chocolates shaped either like a brace of trout (packed in a wooden crate) or a mock tin of sardines. What sort of world is it where a gal who thinks a guy is giving her the traditional can of sardines finds out he’s fobbed her off with chocolate?

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If You Can’t Lick ‘Em . . .

In “Brewed in the Pacific Northwest,” Gary and Gloria Meier report one way Portland’s Henry Weinhard Brewery survived Prohibition: switching from beer to a line of soft drinks under the brand name Puritan.

And If You Can’t See ‘Em . . .

Cola sales growth has slowed to 2% to 3%; meanwhile, the clear, fruit-flavored New Age beverages, such as Clearly Canadian, have been growing twice as fast. So, says the Wall Street Journal, both Coke and Pepsi are studying the idea of marketing transparent colas in glass bottles. (No reason why they couldn’t--the cola’s brown color comes entirely from caramel.)

Please Bring Your Cartons to a Full Upright Position

On the principle that people flying to Orlando are probably taking their kids to Disney World, United Airlines now serves Big Macs on Orlando flights.

But Can They Break a 10,000-Yen Note?

Vegetarian Times reports that Japanese consumers will soon be able to buy rib-eye steaks from vending machines.

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