[ the domino effect ]

-Furious fathers are physically attacking the drivers of ice-cream vans, the jolly chiming of Home-Ice bells sending them into fits of mad, self-righteous rage.
-”Anger and aggression can be provoked by unwanted sounds, it can drive people over the edge”, comments psychiatrist Berthold Grünfeld, himself not willing to let the melody irritate him: “This is of course subjective. Some people get provoked by sound, some can handle it better- it might help to remind oneself that in just a couple of minutes, it will all be over, and try to think about something else in the meantime”, is his advice to posh hotheads everywhere.
Lars Dirks (20), the ice-cream driver attacked by an insult-spouting father in one of the most affluent city neighbourhoods, might view the matter a bit differently. He got away unhurt, just with the fear and a few scratches, but says this is not the first time he’s been attacked in the same area: “Some people seem to take the sound of the bells as a personal insult”, he despairs. “In one neighbourhood, there’s a man photographing my van each time I arrive, it seems like he want to take it to court- But my job must go on, I can’t let them scare me”.
-Ice-cream vendors, it seems, must have balls of steel. It is an extreme-sport challenge simply to get though the day.

---[[ the X reporting, from arctic city, the fields of nowhere.]]----------