Rice ban a party pooper!
The mayor of Venice is considering a ban on the throwing of rice as part of his city's efforts to reduce a burgeoning pigeon population.
The throwing of rice is one of the key ingredient of the romantic Italian wedding. It is intended to wish newlyweds prosperity and fertility.
But the rice has the side effect of attracting pigeons - there are about 40,000 in the historic centre.
This is forcing the city to spend a lot of money on cleaning.
A Venetian wedding attracts all sorts of onlookers and among those often waiting patiently for bride and groom are the city's pigeons.
They queue in their hundreds.
The more discerning have worked out that weddings are more than just a cause for celebration; they are an abundant source of food and with over 1,000 weddings every year, there is plenty of rice to go round.
With all the food and rice that is dropped in Venice, the pigeons can pick and choose what they take.
In Venice, things are about to get an awful lot tougher for the pigeons and their fanciers.
It was written by quite a controversial local councillor (controversial for us anyway) and posted on the Lancashire Telegraph website:
http://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk...rty_pooper.php
My first thought was "what the hell has rice and Venice got to do with people in Lancashire?"
and then I tried to work out if he was implying something but, call me thick, I can't fathom it.
Any ideas or suggestions? (Proper ones please
) Or am I just too suspicious? ???
Bookmarks