I've learned a lot of London facts today, for instance that the London Marathon only began in 1981, and runs from Blackheath to Buckingham Palace, or that Shazia from The Apprentice runs a shop that I pass on the way to the Tube (presumably the business hasn't grown because she keeps going home halfway through stocktaking). All very exciting, but I think I've had enough London facts for a while - it's time to head somewhere a bit more exotic, like Palermo in Sicily. Famous for the football team's brilliant kit, and not a lot else. OK, famous for the Mafia - those Sicilians really need to diversify. And, like a man with a credit card bill and a glamorous wife who's packing her suitcase, we're turning in desperation to the Cosa Nostra for today's fact:
To signify that they intend to claim protection money from small business owners, Mafiosi will put glue in their keyholes.
That's not a euphemism, by the way - the poor proprietor comes home to find they can't get back into their house, a sure sign that the boys in black are after a slice of pizzo (the term given to protection money in Sicily, and yes, it was a good pun, wasn't it). The Mafia basically demand a 'negotiable' sum to protect small businesses - if they refuse, the Mafia turn the places over. So basically you may money to the Mafia, so they protect you against themselves. There's a rip off if ever I heard one.
Some residents are now standing up to the mobsters, flat-out refusing to pay them off, which I'll freely admit I'd never have the balls to do. There's a very interesting article about it here, but I still haven't finished that cursed application form, so that's your lot.
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