Lead Stories
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In September Norway’s prime minister, Kjell Magne Bondevik, took three weeks’ paid sick leave for depression, reportedly caused by imminent budget negotiations he had to conduct with the parliament. He pronounced himself well late in the month and returned to work. And in August Finland’s prime minister, Paavo Lipponen, took six days’ partly compensated paternity leave after his wife gave birth to a baby girl. The law allows up to 12 days for fathers.
Life Imitates the Tabloids
In Seattle, after a liquor-soaked evening in July, Donald R. Wood III, 27, fell six floors down an elevator shaft and was not discovered for five days. He survived. In Breezewood, Pennsyvlania, in August, Michael Giovanetti lost control of his car and went over an embankment; he was not able to crawl out of the mangled car for four days, but finally made it up a 75-foot slope to the road, where a passing motorist stopped to help him. Also in August a 23-year-old Chinese stowaway survived a three-hour flight to Tokyo by clinging to the plane’s landing gear in subzero temperatures at an altitude of up to six miles. He was immediately deported upon landing.
In May the president of a Japanese fake answering service, which had previously catered mainly to prostitutes who need to convince their friends and parents that they hold respectable jobs, said he had recently started signing up people who are ashamed of having been laid off from work.
Recurring Themes
