IN THESE recessionary times, one must deploy all means legal to get through the gloom. For some, that may mean the "interest-only" mortgage option; for others, it means cancelling the annual skiing holiday, writes THE MAGPIE.
Or it could mean wearing yellow underpants.
Yellow, recession-proof underpants are all the rage in Brazil, for it seems that, down Rio way, the colour of underwear worn at midnight on New Year's Eve is believed to determine one's luck for the year.
Red underwear is supposed to bring passion for the new year. Pink underwear will bring love. White underwear will bring peace. Green underwear will bring luck . . . and yellow underwear means money, money, money.
With so many people worried about the global economic fallout, yellow underpants are flying off shelves.
"People are desperate," says Denise Areal, marketing director for Duloren, one of Brazil's biggest underwear producers.
"They want to not lose their jobs and have some money in their pockets. We've sold out 100,000 pairs and we don't have time to make any more."
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A depressed parrot in England is taking Prozac after the death of the man who raised him. Fred the parrot got the blues after owner George Dance died nine months ago.
The African Grey parrot bit all of his neck feathers off and bobbed his head up and down all day. Animal experts believe he went into a deep depression because he could not understand why Mr Dance had disappeared.
But a twice-daily liquid dose of a bird-friendly version of Prozac, called Clomical, has put him back on his perch.
Mr Dance's widow, Helen, of Somerset, said: "He has been in quite a state since my husband died. Fred was very close to George and became depressed."
Experts say tropical birds are very emotional and the number needing anti-depressants is rising.
Fred is featured on a Cutting Edgeshow called Special Needs Petson Channel 4.
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In a separate parrotty development, one that was missing in Wrexham, Wales, has been reunited with its owner after chirping its own name down the phone from the home of its rescuer.
The woman who found two-year-old cockatiel Smokey wanted to be sure she was speaking to the rightful owners. So she passed the phone to the bird, and it immediately squawked its name.
Smokey went missing after flying out the door of owner David Edwards's home in Gwersyllt, near Wrexham.
His two-day adventure in the wild came to an end two miles away in Wrexham, when he perched on accountant Sue Hill's shoulder.
She took him in and phoned the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, which put her in touch with Mr Edwards who had reported his cockatiel missing.
Ms Hill said: "I called and spoke to his wife who told me her pet was called Smokey and asked me to put him on the phone.
"As soon as he heard her voice, he stopped chirping and began saying 'Smokey'. It was very funny. That was the first time the bird had spoken and it was then I was sure that he belonged to them."
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A miracle pup clung to a speeding car for more than 24km (15 miles) after being knocked down.
The motorist, Marco Menozzi, did not even stop when he mowed down the one-year-old pooch while doing 113km/h (70mph) on a side road in Cozze, southern Italy.
But he hit the dog so hard that the dog became embedded in the grill under the bonnet of the Peugeot 207 and managed to cling on until the car eventually stopped.
Vets treated the stray for a broken leg and bruising and he is now in a police pound looking for new owner.
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This week's Bushism: "I just want you to know that when we talk about war, we're really talking about peace." - June 18th, 2002.