LONDON, August 30, 2011 — /PRNewswire/ –

Package holidays have become increasingly popular with Virgin holidays customers. With a varied choice of destinations and resorts to suit every budget, package holidays are a favourite with holiday makers of all ages. Package holidays need no longer be synonymous with second rate holidays, as Virgin holidays numerous options for package holidays will provide the perfect luxury getaway without breaking the bank!

Enjoy the best of what Barbados has to offer at the Southern Palms Barbados. The spacious resort set on the beautiful oceanfront at St Lawrence Gap, is the perfect place in which to relax and unwind. Feeling completely tranquil after a day relaxing in the spacious grounds and sampling the delicious foods on offer from the Garden Terrace Restaurant, you can enjoy a short five minute walk into town where there are plenty of restaurants, shops and bars for your evening entertainment. On Sunday, the Southern Palms Barbados is the only place to be as people from all over the island travel to the resort to enjoy the famous Sunday buffet lunch accompanied by fantastic live music.

Set on the beach by Runaway Bay in Jamaica, the Royal Decameron Club Caribbean is a great holiday destination for adults and children alike. The vast amounts of water sports available on the beach will keep everyone entertained. The more active holidaymaker will enjoy water-skiing and windsurfing, but if taking it easy is more your cup of tea then you will enjoy sailing around the bay taking in the beautiful scenery around Royal Decameron Club Caribbean. This all-inclusive resort is the perfect place to enjoy balmy Caribbean nights with a choice of a buffet style restaurant, a Pan-Asian or a Caribbean fusion #xE0; la carte restaurant. After dinner, adults will enjoy the choice of four bars for their nightcap or for those who enjoy a party theres a disco which stays open until 2:00am!

Set on a long stretch of Jamaican beach, the Rose Hall Resort is a luxury resort which offers entertainment for all the family. If you can tear yourself away from the beautiful beach, there is a spacious swimming pool for a relaxing swim, the Sugar Mill Falls Waterpark to keep the kids entertained, water sports to enjoy in the beautiful sparkling Caribbean Sea and even aerobics classes which will be sure to leave you rejuvenated. The Rose Hall Resort boasts a number of restaurants, from Mangoes Bar and Grill which is perfect for a casual lunch to the Three Palms which is the perfect setting for a romantic meal, up on the hillside overlooking the Caribbean Sea. And to finish the night, head to the Purple Moon for drinks and dancing. The Rose Hall Resort is the perfect setting for your Jamaican getaway.

To book -#xA0;http://www.virginholidays.co.uk#xA0;#xA0;or Call 0844-557-3859

About Virgin Holidays

Virgin Holidays is the UKs leading Worldwide Holiday Company with adventures to the USA, the Caribbean, Africa, the Middle and Far East, the Indian Ocean and Australasia.#xA0;

As one of the top travel companies in the UK, Virgin Holidays strives to deliver amazing holiday experiences to all customers. Formed in 1985 following the creation of Virgin Atlantic, and built on the Virgin principles of excellent customer service, high quality and value for money, Virgin Holidays offers maximum convenience and flexibility with an emphasis on fun and excitement. The brand is particularly known for the magic touches and added sparkle customers have come to expect whatever destination they choose. Virgin Holidays has become synonymous with honesty and reliability, delivered with a sense of fun and an innovative twist

SOURCE Virgin Holidays

Enlarge Giles Keyte

Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturgess explore two decades’ worth of friendship in One Day.

Giles Keyte

Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturgess explore two decades’ worth of friendship in One Day.

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August 20, 2011

Danish director Lone Scherfig is making an international name for herself as a female director whose films tend to focus on human relationships — think of 2002′s Italian for Beginners and 2009′s An Education. Her latest film, One Day, is a romance based on the best-selling novel by British author David Nichols. The story chronicles one day in the life of two characters, Emma and Dexter, as it occurs over 20 years.

Scherfig tells NPR’s Jacki Lyden that the day itself — July 15 — is not particularly significant.

“It’s just the day when we check in on the characters every year whether they are together or not,” she says. “And it’s deliberately a random day. But it lets you see the characters sometimes on days when you normally wouldn’t see them on film and at other times at bigger events or crucial turning points.”

When we first meet her in 1988, Emma, played by Anne Hathaway, is an insecure A student with a huge appetite for literature and a dream of becoming a writer. She runs into privileged, lazy Dexter (played by Jim Sturgess) as they are both graduating from university. They are an unlikely pair, but that’s part of what attracted Scherfig to the story.

“It is an ongoing theme [in my work]: odd couples or people who are not very good at expressing themselves,” she says. “I like to see losers win, so I do get attracted to scripts that have some sort of unpredictability built in.”

Enlarge Giles Keyte

One Day director Lone Sherfig says adapting David Nichols’ novel into a two-hour film was “a big responsibility both to the writer and the readers.”

Giles Keyte

One Day director Lone Sherfig says adapting David Nichols’ novel into a two-hour film was “a big responsibility both to the writer and the readers.”

Still, transferring Nichols’ novel to the screen was not an undertaking that Scherfig took lightly.

“This book is so loved and became extremely popular while we were shooting,” she says. “[Making the film was] a big responsibility both to the writer and the readers.”

It was particularly challenging to fit the entirety of Nichols’ story — and the passage of 20 years — into two hours. Doing so required Scherfig to tap her broad director’s “toolbox,” including costumes, props and a soundtrack that flows from 1988 to 2008.

Scherfig hopes the end result will appeal to the book’s legions of fans as well as those who have never read it. But as personal as the film feels to her, she realizes that the time has come for her to let go.

“With One Day, it’s like the feeling you had when you saw your child walking to school for the first time. … I have to just get re-used to it. It’s not my film anymore. It belongs to the audience,” she says. “I can’t keep fixing it.”

Related NPR Stories

One Couple, ‘One Day,’ Many Years, Many Tears Aug. 18, 2011

It is not especially surprising that Ian Ritchie, the chief executive of the
All England Club revealed during Wimbledon that he receives more letters
about grunting than anything else.

Especially when two particularly loud women find themselves on the same court,
their battles for sonic supremacy can ruin the spectators enjoyment of the
game.

Scientists or at least physiologists have explained that players receive a
physical benefit from grunting. It focuses your breathing patterns, and
encourages the use of core muscles, so that you release the maximum amount
of energy when you strike the ball.

Even at my own lame standard of tennis, I do find that a small grunt helps me
hit the ball harder and time it better.

But in the womens game, in particular, the whole thing is out of control. It
is one thing to make a small sound of effort as you strike the ball, another
to let that howl continue as Azarenka, for instance, has been known to
until the ball has come back onto your side of the court.

There is something quite atavistic about these noises: they are like
territorial calls of aggression, in which the screamer is saying Get out of
my way every time she plays a shot. That is why even someone as
mild-mannered as Watson could not help being drawn into the whole ritual
yesterday. I thought I was kind of a bit loud today, as well, Watson
smiled after the game.

Watsons little Ooofs resembled the discreet Ching of a triangle when
placed alongside the full timpani of Sharapova, but even so they sent a
message of Im still here, Mrs Caterwaul.

So what is to be done? The officials of the womens tour are in denial about
the problem, so far in denial that there was some speculation last night
that Watson might have been briefed before the press conference, to make
sure she didnt draw any attention to the issue.

But surely, in an age of Hawk-Eye and other TV aids, it wouldnt be too
difficult to hook up a decibel counter to the broadcast unit. And then you
would just have a cut-off level. The likes of Sharapova and Michele Larcher
de Brito are reported to have been clocked somewhere around 100 or 110
decibels, so maybe you set the level at 80-odd?

Admittedly, this wouldnt be much good at amateur level, but this doesnt seem
to be an amateur problem. Its the alpha females of the professional game
who are alarming us with the wrong sort of racket.

CALGARY — Missing Fluffy? Calgary is implementing a program that will give closure to pet owners whose beloved dogs and cats are found dead on city roads.

Beginning Monday, roadkill with a collar will be shipped to the Animal Services Centre.

The city will examine the remains for collars, tattoos and microchips and attempt to find the owner. If no one claims the pet within 10 days, the body will be cremated.

The whole idea is to provide proper closure for people when they lose a pet, said chief bylaw officer Bill Bruce. The bond between people and their pets in this community is remarkable.

Bruce said the program was inspired by public demand. In the past, dead pets would be shipped directly to the landfill, although the service would keep the collar on file.

Weve had a few situations where people became quite upset when they found out what happened to their animal, he said.

Bruce said the number of pets dying on the roads has dropped dramatically over the past year.

Officers found a third fewer dead cats compared to the year before and a 60 per cent drop in the number of dead dogs.

More people are keeping their pets confined and under control, Bruce said.

The service will come at no cost to the city as the price will be covered by the animal licensing program.

Owners will be able to reclaim their pets for a private cremation, if they wish.

Bruce has asked owners not to bury their pets in the backyard.

A pet might be dug up by other animals. It could also spread disease. Cremation is the best option, Bruce said. Failing that, pets can be buried at the Shepard landfill site.

It really is a health and sanitation issue, Bruce said.

The citys program will also collect dead coyotes and raccoons to be studied by the University of Calgary. The school is researching urban predators and the spread of parasites and disease.

A program exploring leisure time in the Victorian era will be offered from 10:30 to 11:45 am Thursday at the Bayless-Selby House Museum in Denton.

The program, titled Victorian Pastimes: Reading, Lace Making, Quilling, is part of the museums Victorian Home Series.

Life during Victorian times was not all work and no play, said Robyn Lorraine Lee, manager of Denton County Museums in the Historical Park of Denton County.

There were books written specifically for youths of the time, and adults also enjoyed reading, Lee said. Certain crafts were also popular.

Young girls spent many leisure hours at all sorts of needlecrafts, Lee wrote in an e-mail. Mothers and grandmothers joined in teaching them, as well as making more difficult pieces.

Painting porcelain was popular during the Victorian era, Lee said, and museum visitors can see examples.

We have a fabulous collection of porcelain painted by our very own Denton girl, Felicia Alberta Daugherty, Lee said. It is absolutely gorgeous and includes place settings for the table, as well as decorative pieces, such as vases, chargers and drinking pitchers.

Quilling and making lace, as the programs title suggests, were also popular, Lee said.

We have many beautiful examples in the museum, she said. We have taught quilling in workshops for many years, and we shall have a quick how to during the program with examples to show off.

The program will also explore Victorian-era music, Lee said. Families often gathered around parlor organs and pianos, as well as Victrolas, she said, and museum visitors will find an organ, piano and Victrola on exhibit.

Middle-class recreation at home included lawn games, as well, and we wont miss out on a few words about those, she said.

Picnics, fairs, literary societies and opera houses also offered diversions for Denton residents of that era, Lee said.

Admission to Thursdays program is $5, and reservations are suggested by calling 940-349-2865.

The museum is located at 317 W. Mulberry St. For more information, visit www.dentoncounty.com .

Car show, chili cook-off to benefit United Way

Proceeds from a car show and chili cook-off planned for Saturday at Denton Regional Medical Center will benefit the United Way of Denton County.

Both events will be held in the parking lot at the medical centers Professional Office Building, located at 3535 S. Interstate 35E.

Registration for the car show will begin at 8 am Cost is $10 per entry. The show will get under way at 10 am

The cook-off is a Chili Appreciation Society International event, said Sharon Garrett, chairwoman of the medical centers United Way employee campaign.

Cooks can set up at any time, starting about 6 am, she said.

Entry fee is $20, and turn-in time for all chili is 2 pm

There will also be bounce houses, barbecue and snow cones, Garrett said.

Well have two bounce houses, she said. One is for kids 4 and younger, and one is for older kids.

Garrett said Saturdays fundraiser is the brainchild of her daughter, Alyssa Laney, a nursing student.

She came up with this idea, Garrett said, and I thought it was great.

For more information or to register for the car show, call 940-384-3975 or e-mail alyssa.laney@hcahealthcare.com .

Aubrey store accepting school-related donations

An Aubrey store has launched a campaign to help provide school supplies for students in need.

A donation of $30 will provide a school supply packet for a child at Brockett and Monaco elementary schools, said Jessica Clark, owner of Shiny Girlz, located at 200 S. Main St.

Were asking people to buy a packet, or they can just bring in school supplies, Clark said.

All school supply donations will be taken to the schools on Aug. 22.

The store is open from 10 am to 5 pm Monday through Saturday. For more information, call 940-365-2150, e-mail shinygirlz@live.com or visit www.shinygirlz.weebly.com .

Area church offers free Back-to-School Bash

Blue Mound United Methodist Church will offer a Back-to-School Bash for youngsters in preschool through sixth grade from 10 am to 1 pm Saturday.

Its free, and all kids in the area are invited, said the Rev. Nancy DeStefano, church pastor. It will be lots of fun.

The event will feature games, a bounce house, puppet show, food and more, she said.

Event registration will begin at 9:30 am at the church, located at 8421 N. Interstate 35, midway between Denton and Sanger, off Exit 473.

For more information, call 940-382-0825.

Argyle resident to compete at championship

Jaclyn White of Argyle recently qualified for the 2011 American Quarter Horse Youth Association World Championship Show, now under way in Oklahoma City.

White and her American quarter horses Versionary and Joe Sudden will compete for the Western riding, Western pleasure and trail youth world titles, said her mother, Vanessa White.

Jaclyn rides under the direction of her trainer, Terri King. Jaclyn is a junior at Coram Deo Academy in Flower Mound.

For more information about the competition, which continues through Saturday, visit www.aqha.com/youth .

Forestburg to have annual watermelon festival

The 31st annual Forestburg Watermelon Festival and Homecoming is planned for Saturday, and this years theme is Our Western Heritage, organizers announced recently.

In addition to free watermelon, the event will include a parade, a poker run, a 42 tournament, country and Western music, gospel music and a rodeo.

In keeping with the events theme, there will a display of Western memorabilia in the Atkins Building on Main Street.

Were excited about the Western memorabilia, said Betty Bailey, a Forestburg resident and event organizer. We think thats going to be a fun thing.

Kenneth Joe Wassie Reynolds and his wife, Rosemary, are grand marshals for the parade, which will begin at 10 am and is open to floats, riding clubs, individual riders, businesses, and antique cars and tractors. For more information about entering the parade, call Debra Dill at 940-964-2483.

A barbecue lunch will be served at the Forestburg Community Centre immediately after the parade. Cost is $8 for adults and $4 for kids 10 and younger. Homemade ice cream also will be for sale during the event.

There will be plenty of activities for kids, too, including an egg toss, balloon toss and watermelon seed spitting contest.

The rodeo will begin at 8 pm at the Forestburg Rodeo Arena. For more information on the rodeo, call 940-964-2483.

Proceeds from the festival will benefit Forestburg Community Service Club projects. For more information about the event, call 940-964-2644.

LES COCKRELL is interested in your input for Out amp; About. Help share information about Denton County events and people by calling him at 940-566-6887. His e-mail address is lcockrell@dentonrc.com .

The down economy has forced many people to trim household expenses, and at a cost of $775 annually, according to the ASPCA, pet ownership is something many have been forced to give up. In many cases, the burden of abandoned pets has fallen to animal shelters, but nationwide efforts by pet stores are providing much-needed assistance.

At San Francisco’s Animal Care and Control, Director Rebecca Katz says the shelter has noticed an approximate 18% increase in owners surrendering pets since the recession started in 2008. But last week, the shelter got some help with its load when PetFood Express, a pet supply shop, opened an in-store cat adoption center.

“The ideas of a permanent adoption center is much more helpful for us, because it’s a permanent home for the animals,” says Katz. “Doing weekend adoption events means finding volunteers who will come down, drive the animals in and bring them back; having this center takes off some of the burden.”

While retail adoption centers might help shelters, there’s a more fiscal reason behind the additions: sales.

“It’s a mutually beneficial relationship,” says Katz. “People like seeing the animals, and this kind of thing really drives people to the stores. People who might not want to come in to buy a dog collar will still come look around if they know there are cute kittens to look at.”

At pet supply store PetsMart (NASDAQ: PETM), which has been doing in-store adoptions since the 1980s, senior communications manager for PetsMart Charities, Jeff Davis, says the company does not track how adoptions affect sales, but that having pets in store certainly inspires more people to drop by and look.

In 2010, PetsMart branched out from in-store adoptions and began setting up stand-alone adoption centers run by local humane societies or animal control in states including Colorado, Texas, Arizona, Idaho and Kentucky. So far, the new model is proving successful, says Davis.

“The adoption rates are high, and we have seen a decrease in euthanasia rates in the cities where we’re located,” he says, adding that the new centers were spurred by the increase in pet homelessness. Often, when a home is foreclosed on or a family has to downsize their living quarters, pets don’t make the budget cut and get left behind.

Davis says that because shelters often don’t have the polished exterior of a pet store, they aren’t given the consideration they deserve from individuals looking to adopt.

“People are scared to go to county shelters, but the mall is a happy place, and we knew that pets could get showcased in a really great way at a venue that is more family friendly,” says Davis, who adds that mall management companies are seeing the value in leasing space to a company that is helping animals in need.

Although the down economy is one reason more people are abandoning their pet, it is also a catalyst for others looking to add a furry friend to turn to homeless shelters. Adoption fees from a shelter animal range from $5 to $100, according to Davis, while purebreds can cost more than $2,000.

“Also, when you adopt, you almost always get your pet’s first vaccines included, and many times they are already spayed and neutered, which saves at least $100 in vet bills,” says Davis.

At Petland, Inc, which operates 90 pet stores in the US, all stores are privately owned and operated, but recent initiatives have required all stores to participate in saving homeless animals in some form or another, according to Petland Director of Marketing and Communication Elizabeth Kunzelman.

“Some stores work with shelters to place unwanted puppies and kittens, while other stores don’t sell any purebreds and work entirely with the community to bring in unwanted litters,” says Kunzelman, who adds that offering homeless pets in conjunction with often pricey purebreds has not cut into store sales.

“Really, you’re talking about two totally different customers here. Some customers want a purebred animal for their family; they want that specific pet. Other families will be happy with a shelter animal and they aren’t the type of customer who would pay $1,500 for a purebred puppy anyway,” says Kunzelman.

Kunzelman says that the main challenge in bringing in shelter animals is actually working with the shelters themselves, as some shelters do not believe that pet stores should sell pets at all. The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) issued a position statement in support of pet stores selling rescue animals as long as the stores meet certain requirements.

“While [the sale of shelter animals at pet stores] might seem patently objectionable, a more careful examination of the concept suggests that with proper safeguards in place, the practice could provide a valuable new opportunity for saving animal lives,” wrote the ASPCA in its statement.

For ASPCA approval, a store must be licensed to house and sell pets, must have undergone an inspection by shelter staff, and must agree to never sell a pet to a research laboratory.

And at PetsMart, the annual results are promising, with more than 400,000 shelter animals per year finding new homes via in-store adoption centers.

Updated: August 18, 2011 5:06PM

The e-mail from The Music Theatre Company in August 2010 was one of the most anticipated missives of the year for Julia Beck.

In it, the actress from Highland Park found a script and discovered what her role was in the 48-Hour Musicals based on the Facebook statuses of Artistic Director Jessica Redish’s friends.

After receiving it, Beck had enough time to read the script once or twice before dashing out to rehearse with the other actors for 24 hours.

Then, it was show time.

“It’s overwhelming and exciting when you get that initial e-mail,” she said. “It’s definitely a challenge because you want to do justice to the work and get across the idea of the writers and composers.”

A day earlier, writers and composers received their assignment from Redish, and they also had just 24 hours to write the script, lyrics and music before sending it to the actors. The one advantage writers had is they knew who they were writing for.

15-minute shows

The theatrical fire drill will happen again soon for this year’s 48-Hour Musicals based on bizarre book titles. Audiences will get to see on Aug. 22 and 23 what writers, composers and actors were able to throw together in a short time to come up with four 15-minute musicals. It promises to be interesting, at the very least, considering musicals usually take years to write and months to rehearse, albeit these are shorter.

It all starts with Redish, a Highland Park native, who constantly has an eye out for the humorous. This year’s idea came from a book she found called Bizarre Book Titles: A Compendium of Classic Oddities.

While there’s some pressure on the writers and actors to turn out a product in no time, they enjoy it.

Emma Caywood, a Wilmette native, wrote a script last year based on the Facebook status, “At least the salmonella outbreak will help me with my cholesterol.” Keith Harrison wrote the music and lyrics. They will write again this year, too.

After four hours of kicking around ideas with Harrison last year, Caywood wrote a script about three adult children sitting shiva for their father.

“We’d never written together before,” she said. “We’d only met once before. But Jessica, in her brilliance, decided we’d work well together. We definitely wrote as a team. I’d toss him something, and he’d toss me something back. It was one of those truly great experiences.”

It was a project unlike any other. It was a new way of working — writing only 15 minutes of dialogue, lyrics and music with such tight time constraints — which made it an enjoyable challenge.

“I generally spend 10 to 12 months just thinking about ideas before writing,” Caywood said.

A lot can happen in 15 minutes.

Jill Sesso, a Barrington Hills native, played a 5-year-old girl named Isabella in a musical called “Goodbye, Firefly,” based on a Facebook status posted by a mother commenting on how quiet her house was now that all her children were off to school.

Long story short

” ‘Goodbye, Firefly’ is a play about how quickly life happens,” Sesso said. “In 15 minutes, you get to watch 5-year-old Isabella turn into a sassy adolescent, turn into a soon-to-be college student. You also get to see what happens to the parents’ relationship over this time span, and how, ultimately, that has no effect on the parents’ relationship with their daughter.”

She added, “Aside from meeting and getting to work with some amazingly talented artists, I got a sense of being able to do a lot in a very limited amount of time.”

The parts, Redish said, are gifts for the actors because they’re written specifically for each actor.

“There’s pride of
ownership because the
part is written for you and
it can be changed for you,” she said. “Plus, you’re
learning to trust your impulses.”

And, of course, the audiences benefit, too.

“There’s a wow factor,” Redish said. “You can’t believe this happens in 48 hours.”

Most of us will never be able to throw down a hammer dunk quite like Jamar Samuels can, or be able to ruin a teams momentum by blocking a spike like Alex Muff does, but that does not mean that we do not share the love of the game like they do.

These two were truly blessed with ability that not everyone has. Fortunately, there is a way for us to keep active with the sports that we love.

Intramurals are a great way to stay involved with sports.

They also provide an escape from the grind of classes and stress and allow us to return to our favorite pastimes.

Intramurals give you the chance to go back to your high school days when you did not have all of the worries you do now and where your only worry was making sure you won your games, said Jared Woody, senior in construction science and management.

Another great thing about intramurals is that there is such a wide variety of sports available, so there are many opportunities to find a new passion.

Besides the sports we are more accustomed to such as football, basketball and volleyball, sports like water polo, racquetball and even Ultimate Frisbee are enjoyable and easy to play.

If you also have knowledge of sports, then intramurals can be not only a fun activity, they can also be a great part-time job during the school year.

Matt Pfeifer, sophomore in secondary education, said he decided to be a referee both for the fun and for the money.

Well, I have always been a huge sports fan, he said. Refereeing was a way for me to be involved with sports, while also making a little money on the side. The schedule is flexible and I have made a lot of friends doing it.

Intramurals are great because of the wide variety of sports available that allows everyone to find something that they truly enjoy.

Students also do not have to wait a long time for the games to begin.

Signups for team sports start on Thursday at the Peters Recreation Complex.

Additionally, referee meetings start on Aug. 30.

For more information, call the Rec at 785-532-6980 and ask for Armando Espinoza, assistant director of intramurals.

School is off and running, and we are all going to be busy with various activities, but everyone should take advantage of intramurals to escape, take a break and have some fun.

Airlines may be cool to recommended ban but issue shouldnt be taken lightly
It doesnt appear the fur is about to fly regarding a ban on pets in airline passenger cabins.
Although the Canadian Medical Association recommends a ban on pets travelling inside the cabin on all Canadian passenger planes (an idea supported by the head of the Alberta Medical Association), WestJet Airlines said Wednesday its not about to consider such a ban.
Air Canada had a policy between 2006 and 2009 that banned pets in the passenger cabin, but later reversed it.
The recommendation for a ban was adopted Tuesday as a resolution at the CMA annual general meeting being held in St. Johns, NL The CMA suggested pets travel in the cargo hold because they can pose serious health risks to people with pet-related allergies.
As Dr. Patrick White, head of the AMA, pointed out in a Canadian Press story Wednesday, its difficult to get passengers to a hospital if they suffer a serious allergic reaction in mid-flight.
WestJet said a ban is not necessary because its planes are equipped with air filters that eliminate allergens. If thats the case, perhaps theres no cause for concern, but does such equipment really remove all allergens? It doesnt take much to affect a person with such allergies.
The airline said another option would be to offer passengers with allergies a different flight with no dogs or cats on board.
That sounds like a case of choosing to inconvenience passengers rather than pets.
Judging from some of the posted comments on the CTV website responding to a story about the CMAs recommended ban, there seems to be a segment of the population that fails to grasp the potentially serious nature of allergies. Allergies can trigger anaphylaxis, or anaphylactic shock, a serious reaction that can be fatal.
More than one person said its up to allergy sufferers to ensure theyre not exposed to allergens while in public. Responsibility should be with the person to wear a mask or take appropriate medicine to help with the flight conditions, noted one comment.
Another suggested, Maybe people with allergies shouldnt travel in planes at all, considering their weak condition. Survival of the fittest.
Said another: People with allergies need to just suck it up. Its (sic) your own problem that you have an allergy and nobody elses. Pop a Claritin and stop crying about it.
Such lack of empathy for the plight of allergy sufferers is disturbing, to say the least.
Thats not to say people with pets shouldnt be considered. There have been cases of pets dying while being transported in a planes cargo hold where conditions werent suitable. Perhaps theres another solution, such as placing people with pets in a part of the airplane cabin well away from allergy sufferers.
Whatever the solution, it needs to seriously consider the situation of those with allergies. Its a health issue, and one that shouldnt be taken lightly.

Beginning of Story Content

360, a dramatic thriller from Brazilian director Fernando Meirelles, will open the London Film Festival on Oct. 12.

The film, with an ensemble cast including Jude Law, Rachel Weisz and Anthony Hopkins, gets its world premiere next month as a gala at the Toronto International Film Festival.

It follows a tangled web of human relationships around the world, including Hopkins as a recovering alcoholic looking for his daughter and Weisz as a married woman attempting to ditch a young lover.

Written by Britains Peter Morgan and loosely based on Austrian playwright Arthur Schnitzlers La Ronde, it is partly set in Vienna, Paris, Denver and London. Its soundtrack features Tom Waits and late Montreal singer Lhasa.

The 55th BFI London Film Festival runs from Oct. 12 to 27. It releases its full schedule Sept. 7.

Meirelles previously launched the festival in 2005 with The Constant Gardener. He also directed City of God and Blindness.

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