Celebrities have clout

In “Westcoast Life” of The Vancouver Sun (Jan. 31 - Feb. 6, 2008), Yvonne Zacharias wrote about film stars “hanging out” in Vancouver’s Sutton Place Hotel, and their “quirky requests”. Following are some of them:

The senior sales manager and hotel staff have spent many a time sitting in an apartment, listening for that elusive noise or hum that the guests insist they are hearing.

One guest complained that the knobs on the dresser would rattle every time the noon horn would sound. No problem. The knobs were quickly changed.

The hotel staff is meticulous about getting call sheets to cast and crew, which tell them about the next day’s shoot, and takes note of odd schedules like night shoots, so hotel staff aren’t vacuuming outside their door early in the morning. Sometimes it’s the little things that count.

Editor’s question: It would be interesting to learn if the hotel management would also turn off their lobby, elevator and toilet muzak for some star?

COPENHAGEN - Ever more Danish kindergarten teachers use hearing protection at work. According to the Copenhagen newspaper Politiken, the manufacturers of noise-protection devices report “new orders daily” from kindergarten and day-care places. Amongst the protective de-vices delivered are specially developed gadgets which filter out the high-pitched sounds typically generated by children screaming and crying.

Union representatives justify the use of hearing protection to avoid hearing damage and to reduce irritation of the pedagogues. Critics say that more intelligent solutions need to be found. According to a nation-wide inquiry, there is no other occupational class suffering so much from noise as does the personnel looking after children.

—Darmsteadter Echo

How I sought relief from the excessive noise from a night club in Istanbul

By Oktay Eksi

Istanbul, perhaps because it has a Mediterranean culture, is a very noisy city both day and night. Today I will tell you about an experience that is common to many Istanbul residents. I live in an opulent part of the city, and there a wealthy person owns a house close to where I live. This person invited my wife and me to the opening of his nearby nightclub. My wife on that night congratulated him on the opening, but said that we were concerned there might be some noise from the nightclub. He said that he would not tolerate the noise. That summer there was noise from the nightclub, but it wasn’t at a very high level.

The next summer the noise coming from the nightclub was much louder. We couldn’t sleep. Loud music came from the club until four in the morning. We called them and asked that they bring the noise level down so we could sleep better. They said they were not aware that there was such a disturbance and said they would bring the noise level down. The next day they sent flowers with an apology. But the loud noise continued, the flowers kept coming, and nothing changed.

had to go to the metropolitan Municipality. The metropolitan Municipality told me that they would handle it; but their officers did not have the authority to fill out the necessary documents. They told me I had to go to the Governor’s Office.

I felt that I should get petitions from the other people living in the area and take measurements of the noise levels so that we would have a complete file before going to the Governor’s Office. We received many petitions from our neighbours, and I asked a professor from the technical university to take the measurements. A team from her department came to our home at night to measure the noise levels. Of course, their finding was incredible, unbearable noise; and they filed their report.

I went to the Governor with the petitions and measurement results. I explained the problem and asked for his help. He told me he would deal with this issue and asked the Director of the Environment to step in. The Director of the Environment said that his office would get to it, but they would have to have their own people do the measurements. They came another night and made measurements. Their measurements revealed excessive noise, and they said they would process a fine. A week later the noise was still going on. We called them again, they made measurements again, but nothing changed.

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