Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Free flip flops for the drunk?



While traveling to London, Brett and I started laughing after reading the local paper. It had a picture of a veteran policeman holding a pair of bright pink flip flops in his hand. The story was about a local police department who handed out free flip flops as a way for the drunk ladies of the town to get home safely. Seems there’s quite a problem with young ladies tottering about on high heels after a night of drinking, and as their balance fails them, they get some nasty scrapes and sprains. We laughed it off as an amusing British newspaper story, but noticed many other indications that the government was trying to change various drinking behaviors. We saw a series of posters in the tube (subway) with paraphrased messages like:

1) Don’t fall on the tracks after drinking. 436 incidents last year.
2)Plan your route home before you get too drunk and pass out on the toilet in a bar after smearing lipstick across your cheeks instead of on your lips.
3)Don’t brawl with the subway staff who are trying to help you find your way home (and clean up after you).

We laughed everytime we saw the signs, but my favorite is the flip flop story. Too funny. You can read the article here.

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