Kids Visit Margaritaville

Report: Alcohol Accidentally Served To Students In Alexandria
Pitcher Of Margaritas Mistaken For Limeade


ALEXANDRIA, Va. -- Officials at Alexandria Country Day School are apologizing to parents after students were accidentally served margaritas during lunch.

The school's international focus this year is Mexico, so the day before the first day of class, teachers celebrated with nachos and margaritas after preparing their classrooms.

"The faculty's not a big drinking group, and so we had the mixed margarita together -- the tequila and the mix -- and we put the pitcher in the back of the refrigerator," said Headmaster Alexander Harvey IV. "Next day, school starts. Everyone's focusing on kids and making it a good first couple of days of school."

But on the first day of school, the milk supply ran out after two lunch periods, so students were served what an employee thought was limeade. It turned out to be the leftover margaritas and was served to third-, fourth- and fifth-grade students.

The cafeteria staff consists of two people: the housekeeper and either a volunteer or another staff member.

"We asked the teachers to start observing the children, because this is at 12:30 and school's not over 'til 3, and to see if there are any abnormal reactions, if they are sleepy or anything like that, even though we knew that the exposure was basically one sip to a very small number. The majority of the kids pushed it away, saying, 'We don't like the smell,' and didn't even taste it."

School officials say they acted quickly, checking students' medical and religious records to insure there weren't problems.

A letter explaining the incident was sent home with students.

"I view it as an unfortunate incident that the school handled as well as they possibly could," said Laura Colton, the president of the parent-teacher association. "Our children were inadvertently exposed. We were told immediately. No child was harmed."

Harvey called it a humbling and embarrassing accident, and it won't happen again. Alcohol has been banned from the campus.

Man-shaped pillow for solo sleeper

By Kaori Hitomi in Nagareyama, Japan
29sep04
AFTER a long night at work as a radio DJ, Junko Suzuki likes to snuggle at bedtime - and she says she's found the perfect partner: a man-shaped pillow.

Linen maker Kameo Corp.'s new "Boyfriend's Arm Pillow" - which consists of a headless torso and a stuffed arm that curls around the sleeper - might make some people uneasy.

But not Ms Suzuki, or about 1000 others in Japan who have bought the pillow, which Kameo says is the first of its kind. The product went on the market last December.

"I like to sleep holding someone's hand," Ms Suzuki, 34. "And this pillow makes me feel relaxed because I can hold the arm and feel something warm at my side."

Kameo, based in the southern Japanese city of Fukuoka, says the pillow is not only an emotional comfort, but that its shape keeps the body balanced by supporting the sleeper from both sides.

Sleepers typically curl up in between the body of the pillow and the crooked arm, with the sleeper's head resting on the pillow's "bicep."

"My grandmother used to say that there is nothing more comfortable pillow than human," Kameo President Tomoki Kakehashi said. "So, I thought that maybe women would want to sleep on an arm-shaped pillow."

The pillow is only on sale in Japan, where customers can buy one for Y8500 ($106.8). Covered in a shirt-shaped pillow cover, it comes in blue, pink or green.

For Ms Suzuki, who is estranged from her husband, the pillow has definite advantages: It doesn't squirm or thrash in the night, and you know it'll be there in the morning.

"It keeps holding me all the way through," she said in her home outside of Tokyo. "I think this is great because this does not betray me."

One-size pillows do not fit all.

So Kameo is working up new models: muscular pillows for sleepers who like their pillows well-built; slender models for those after a more sensitive, vulnerable partner.

The company also has a prototype for its next big project: a female pillow for men. This one will be shaped like a woman's lap, with a "skirt" cover.

"I always thought someone's lap would the best pillow for me," Mr Kakehashi said.