Pandora

Monday 19 April 1999 23:02 BST
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ORANGES ARE not the only fruit... in a plastic case. Pandora, while shopping this week, was surprised to discover a Fresh Citrus Snack - aka an individual orange in plastic packaging (pictured). Lining up with this innovation, known collectively as Fruit on the Move, are plastic-encased grapes, a pear, a banana, a plum, a nectarine and an apple. The imprisoned fruit are incarcerated with a hand-wipe, and are aimed at motorists who need to buy unbruised produce from garage forecourts. Distributors defend the over-protected oranges, also available on Virgin Trains, by pointing at other product packaging.

"In my view there's no difference," said top banana Stephen Penketh from his latex lair within Sara Produce Ltd, "between an orange and an Easter egg."

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HOME ALONE. John Travolta left his consort, the lovely Kelly Preston, behind when he took off on a test flight for his millennial party - he plans to race across the planet's time zones on the last day of the century, and has chartered a Boeing 707 for the trip. On board with Travolta for the week-long rehearsal were several fellow flyboys - all emphatically male. A mouthpiece described the jaunt as "a pleasure trip". Oh, and apparently, while mechanics fixed the plane's engine problems in Christchurch, New Zealand, Travolta entertained diners in a local restaurant by impersonating Prince Charles.

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TOP MARKS to Philip and Lisa Burgess, the Buckinghamshire couple rescued by a local lifeboat and fisherman after their helicopter crashed off the Dorset coast earlier this month. At Pandora's suggestion, the lucky couple have donated more than pounds 10,000 to their redeemers. Bravo!

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IS THERE a spin doctor in the house? The packaged yoghurt product Yakult celebrates the centenary of its inventor Dr Minoru Shirota this summer by sponsoring the Digestive Disorders Foundation's annual conference on "Bowel Bacteria - Friend and Foe."

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HUSTLE DOTCOM: Tim Geary hyped his novel Shouting at the Shipmen into the online bookseller Amazon's hot 100 best-seller list earlier this month by e-mailing all his pals, and synchronising them to buy his book from Amazon on the same day. Enquiring minds need to know - exactly how many friends does Geary have?

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THE OBSERVER'S science editor Robin McKie has unsheathed his sword of truth against newspapers that irresponsibly over-play GM scare stories. In the new Science and Public Affairs section he savages hysterical hacks who write headlines such as "MP links genetic food to deaths". But what kind of sloppy rag would encourage such millennial scaremongering? The week after McKie first wrote the words, the headline "MP links genetic food to 37 deaths" appeared in the Observer's feeble-minded sibling The Guardian.

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CHRIS ISAAK, the rocker, was wavering about letting Stanley Kubrick use his song "Baby Did a Bad Thing" for the trailer of Eyes Wide Shut. When studio suits from Warner Brothers pleaded with him after Kubrick's death, Isaak said: "I have just one question. When you're using my music, is there nudity or violence?" The response was a regretful "Both." "OK," Isaac replied. "It's a go."

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PANDORA'S TINY Booklet of Angst falls open today at the name Alan Duncan. Little Willie's pet rock (Con, Rutland and Melton) helped recruit candidates for his local county council by appealing through the local paper for volunteers to bring the Conservatives back to their former position - on the verge of council control. So potent is the Hague-Duncan wow factor that one person has stepped forward. This gives Rutland Tories potentially as many councillors as the Green Party.

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NOW THAT chrome phones are mainstream, this week's hip'n'trendy must- do (according to Helena Christensen's magazine Nylon) is to customise your mobe with nail polish.

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PATRICK MOORE lost his head at the Planetarium this week when party- goers, over-excited either by the UTH menswear on show or by the prospect of free drinks, careered into a waiter who deftly decapitated the astronomer's waxwork with a flying silver tray.

Contact Pandora by e-mail: pandora @independent. co.uk

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