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The
Daily Gyro December 12, 2005 St. Nicholas Day at Ground Zero – Four Years Later With the Christmas season upon us, we’re reminded of jolly-old Saint Nick. In case you missed it, Saint Nicholas Day was last week. In New York City, services at Ground Zero where St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church stood in the shadow of the World Trade Center took place in a trailer converted into a make-shift church for the day. Parishoners and Orthodox Christians all over the world look forward to the day that St. Nicholas will be rebuilt at that location. Onassis Rolling Over in Grave as Plates Saved In what unfortunately will probably begin a trend of Greek billionaire trust-funder weddings that will make us all ask, “What the heck were they thinking?,” Onassis heir Athina Roussel, 20, married the 32-year old Brazilian Equestrian (that’s Latin for “playboy jockey”) Alvaro Afonso "Doda" de Miranda Neto. The $1,000,000 ceremony, which took place earlier this month, was half Catholic, half Orthodox with the bride speaking her vows in Portuguese “with a light French accent.” The menu included gazpacho and carpaccio, shrimp and a main course of veal served with saffron rice. Dessert included petits fours, almonds and chocolate soufflé. For $1,000,000 you’d think the guests would get a little arni with patates and maybe a galaktobouriko or something, and that the guests would get to break a plate or two. Reports also have the groom crying when seeing the six billion dollar paycheck, er, bride, walk down the aisle. Periptera in Perspective Greek venture capital firm Vectis has recently announced plans to create Greece’s first national chain of periptera. In a nation of over 18,000 typically ubiquitous bright yellow two square meter kiosks, Vectis sees an opportunity to capture a share of a 6 billion Euro industry. To put that number in perspective, there are about 7,000 Starbucks locations in the US and another 3,000 around the world (including 3 in Greece and 7 in Cyprus). Subway has over 24,000 locations in 82 countries (also including 3 in Greece, sorry none in Cyprus.) Now stop and think that Greece is about the size of the state of Alabama. Greeks and Cypriots are Living Large As a segue from Subway, a European Commission report finds that Greek men and women lead their respective genders in being the fattest in the EU. Not far behind in fourth place are Cypriot men and women. In Greece, about 79% of men and about 75% of women are obese. About 73% of Cypriot men are obese while only 58% of Cypriot women are obese. So much for the Mediterranean Diet and all the other positive health claims about Greeks. Quick question: While there seems to be no difference between men and women in Greece, how come the huge discrepancy in Cyprus?
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