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A $175 hamburger, is prepared at The Wall Street Burger Shoppe in New York in this file photo from May
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Whether smashing plates in San Diego to relieve frustration or drinking "Bailout Bitter" beer in Canada sold as a "bitter ale for bitter times", people the world over kept a sense of humour in 2008 despite financial woes.
Some of the year's top off-beat tales included a Canada brewery that created a special tough times bitter and "Sarah's Smash Shack" in California, which charges patrons $10 for 15 minutes of pleasure pulverising dinnerware against a wall.
"It was the best $50 we've spent in the last two years," said insurance broker Adam DeWitt, who smashed plates in San Diego with his wife after his home mortgage loan was rejected.
A glance back at 2008 shows a world full of wonderful, weird and whacky stories both before and after the financial upheaval.
In May, a Wall Street restaurant boasted it was selling the costliest burger in New York, with the $175 patty made of Kobe beef, black truffles and seared foie gras.
"Wall Street has good days and bad days," said Heather Tierney at her Wall Street Burger Shoppe. "We wanted to have something special if you really have a good day on Wall Street."
One bank in Kazakhstan offered a diamond-encrusted credit card for well-heeled clients with incomes over $300,000. A jeweller in Tokyo kept busy selling 13-piece tableware sets made of gold for $1 million -- aimed at newly rich Chinese customers.
Yet there was no need for any plates at all in Bihar, one of India's poorest states where authorities encouraged people to eat rats to fight rising food prices and save grain stocks. They praised rat meat a healthy alternative to rice.
"Bailout" was crowned as the US word of the year, and the financial crisis also had implications in Russia where vodka consumption fell sharply and the National Alcohol Association lobby group in Moscow said vodka stockpiles were six times higher than usual.
A Polish man got the shock of his life when he visited a brothel and spotted his wife among the establishment's employees, making some extra money on the side. After 14 years, the couple are divorcing.
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(Agencies)
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2008年經濟低迷，但不管是在圣地亞哥摔盤泄憤，還是在加拿大喝一種“艱難時期的苦青啤”（也稱“援助苦酒”），世界各地人們的幽默感絲毫未減。
本年度經典的苦中作樂事件有：加拿大一家釀酒廠制出一種特殊的“艱難時期苦啤酒”。在美國加州的“莎拉摔盤小屋”，顧客只需花費10美元就可以體驗痛摔餐具15分鐘的快樂。
保險經紀人亞當?德威特說：“這是我近兩年花的最值的50美元。”在申請住房抵押貸款遭拒后，他與妻子同往圣地亞哥摔盤子。
回首2008年，不管是在經濟危機之前還是之后，整個世界充斥著奇妙、神秘和怪誕的事件。
今年5月份，一家位于華爾街的餐館宣稱他們出售全紐約最貴的漢堡，里面夾的肉餅用神戶牛肉、黑松露和燒鵝肝制成，售價175美元。
這家“華爾街漢堡店”的老板希瑟?特尼說：“華爾街時晴時雨，如果你真的在華爾街過得不錯，我們想奉上些特別的東西。”
哈薩克斯坦一家銀行為收入超過30萬美元的富豪客戶提供鑲有鉆石的信用卡。東京一家珠寶店則忙于出售一套價值100萬美元的13件套黃金餐具，目標顧客群為中國新貴。
而在印度最貧困的省邦之一比哈爾邦，人們可不需要摔盤泄憤，當地政府鼓勵人們吃鼠肉以應對糧價攀高并節約糧食庫存。官方宣稱鼠肉是可以替代大米的健康食品。
“救援”獲選美國年度詞匯，俄羅斯伏特加酒的銷量受經濟危機影響驟減，莫斯科全國酒業協會游說集團稱伏特加庫存量較平時高出六倍。
一位波蘭男子去妓院尋歡卻意外發現妻子在那里賺外快。事后這對牽手14年的夫妻離婚。
（英語點津 實習生許雅寧編輯） |
