This week has been a ...

Good Week for camel racing, as more than 30,000 spectators turned up at a Berlin horse-race track to see the first camel race in northern Europe. "It's a shame we can't place any bets." said one man. "The camels would be ideal for bets because you never know what they are going to do in the middle of the race." Two camels sat down on the track for 15 minutes in mid-race; another stopped two metres from the finishing line.

Good Week for sheep droppings, as Graham Cooper, an investment director, noticed a correlation between market movements and the behaviour of sheep which he had bought to keep his lawn trimmed. "If the sheep droppings are damp," he says, "I've noticed the market tends to fall; and if they are dry, it is likely to go up."

Good Week for public lavatories, as the deputy prime minister of Australia, Tim Fischer, lamented the increased number of private facilities for individual members and senators since they moved from the old parliament house in 1988. He says that cutting off the plumbing in such suites would aid the democratic process by re-establishing the rapport created by informal contact".

Bad Week for eating alone, as a survey of 527 rural teenagers by a Cincinnati psychologist showed that those who showed signs of good adjustment ate a meal with adults in their family about five days a week, while maladjusted children ate with their family only three days a week. The author of the study, however, pointed out that further research is needed before we can tell which is the cause and which is the effect.

Bad Week for burgers, as an Alabama man issued a lawsuit against McDonald's, claiming that he became violently ill and suffered extreme emotional distress after finding a condom in a burger. He had tried several times to bite through what he thought was a pickle before opening the bun to find a rolled-up condom inside. The attorney for McDonald's said the restaurant had had nothing to do with the condom, which must have been put into the bun by somebody else.

Moderate Week for jumping, as Chris Bromham equalled his own record for jumping over 20 juggernauts on a motorbike, but failed in his attempt to clear 21. He also holds the world record for jumping over 18 double- decker buses.