Bonjour detectives

11Sep08

• From today’s Thanh Nien online edition: “Ho Chi Minh City’s District 7 Police have fined 18 hair salons and three cafes for allegedly “arousing sexual interest.”  (Pearl of a phrase that.. ) So what gave it away to Ong Hercule Poirot? “Captain Hastings, it seems strange  that this “alleged hair salon” has no scissors, non? Et aussi… surely if this was really a ‘cat toc’, as you say in the Vietnamese vernacular, there would be well read and dog-eared glossy magazines on the coffee table, non? Or perhaps some combs left hygienically in a glass of blueish disinfectant as well as a pile of clipped whiskers and locks on the floor, and even perhaps a barber? Alors! It is my suspcision that you, Mrs. Hair Salon. Or should I say Madame Cat Toc are taking money off the customers in exchange for  … how you say, Captain Hastings? Le Hanky panky, n’est pas!? “ In next week’s episode Ong Hercule Poirot finds himself in un petit cafe sans cafe mais avec la lumière rouge. “Captain Hastings, there is something a little bit peculiar about this cafe, non? If it is a cafe, ou est la terrace et le garçon?”

• This link is to a most peculiar and highly disturbing story. Squeamish and sensitive folk be warned it involves a man, a plane and a dead baby. How weird.

• Well not quite a soft landing but incredibly this suicide attempt from the ninth floor of a TPHCM hospital was foiled by a passing seven-seat van. What are the odds? Bizarrely, four hours later another person committed suicide from the exact same balcony, more successfully.

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Tags: hercule poirot cat toc