DAMMAM: A 50-year-old man has managed to spend his life up to now without big repercussions related to his inability to read. But according to a report in yesterday’s Okaz daily, the man’s reliance on pictures instead of words finally caught up with him, and cost him his facial hair. The predicament started when the man decided to dye his facial hair black and rifled through his wife’s toiletries. He grabbed a tube of cream that depicted a picture of a woman with long, black hair. Assuming this was hair dye, the man proceeded to apply the cream to his face. It was then that his hair began to fall out. It turned out that the tube of cream was for hair removal not hair coloring. Ashamed of his mistake, the man vowed not to leave his house until the hair grew back.

Wedding day row ends in divorce

AL-NAMAS: According to a report in yesterday’s Al-Riyadh newspaper, a man ended his marriage after his bride insulted the groom’s mom. The row broke out when the mother refused to pay the SR10,000 bill for the wedding drummers. (The women’s side of Saudi weddings often feature women paid to play “duf” drums while singing traditional songs.) The bride then hurled an insult at the groom’s mom, something to the effect of her being mean and greedy. The groom would have nothing of that and ended the marriage as it was taking place.

Father outraged over wedding omission

TAIF: In other news from the wedding front (it is summertime, after all), the absence of names of the bride’s family members from ornate wedding invitations purchased by the groom’s side led to a threat of calling off the wedding altogether. According to yesterday’s Al-Riyadh newspaper, the father of the bride was outraged when he saw the fancy wedding invitations with the glaring omission. He threw down the gauntlet and threatened to pull out of the wedding if the groom’s side didn’t order new cards. While the groom reluctantly agreed to order another batch of very expensive wedding stationery, the bride’s father was relentless in pointing out that he could have avoided this entire ordeal had he ensured the names of all involved were included on the invitations.