Alan Partridge’s Norwich is divorce capital
And other stories from the stranger side of life
Norwich is the divorce capital of England and Wales, according to official figures. New data showed that 12.8% of people in the city were formerly in a marriage or civil partnership. Norwich was followed by Hastings and Blackpool, each at 12.1%, then Lincoln on 11.9%. Norwich has “been associated with divorce ever since Alan Partridge landed a job on the city’s radio station after being dumped by his wife”, said The Times.
‘Creepy’ device lets you send kisses online
A device that allows you to send a kiss to a faraway lover via silicon lips has been launched. Equipped with pressure sensors and actuators, the gadget is said to be able to impersonate a genuine smooch by replicating the pressure, movement and temperature of a user’s lips. It can also broadcast the sound the user makes as they kiss. However, noted CNN, although some social media users saw a funny side to the device, others criticised it as “vulgar” and “creepy.”
Babycham plots a comeback
The 1970s drink Babycham is hoping for a comeback as its owners claim many drinkers would choose it over champagne. The sweet, sparling perry is now back in the ownership of the Showering family who invented it in the 1950s and production has returned to its old headquarters, in Shepton Mallet, Somerset. “We are going towards the original look too, so we’ll have quite a retro feel which, oddly, will make it more modern,” Matthew Showering told The Observer.
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Chas Newkey-Burden has been part of The Week Digital team for more than a decade and a journalist for 25 years, starting out on the irreverent football weekly 90 Minutes, before moving to lifestyle magazines Loaded and Attitude. He was a columnist for The Big Issue and landed a world exclusive with David Beckham that became the weekly magazine’s bestselling issue. He now writes regularly for The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Independent, Metro, FourFourTwo and the i new site. He is also the author of a number of non-fiction books.
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