Courtroom theatre

Courthouses are, almost by definition, full of people who would rather be some place else. As such, the court dockets record some stories that their subjects might prefer to have remained kept quiet - and, indirectly, some lessons in how to stay out of court.

This is true across the world, and the UAE is no exception. On Monday, for example, a 30-year-old man was brought up on charges of posing as a social worker. Why? To impress women, of course. This, we would argue, is only slightly more ridiculous than it is ironic.

In the past few weeks, there has been a steady stream of life-posing-as-satire: a drunk Saudi tourist tries to evade police by hiding under a policeman's car; a tourist who jumps fully clothed into a swimming pool, and then climbed out and groped a waitress; a grocer who bites a customer's finger over vegetables.

And again on Monday, this headline: Dubai man fined for damages after landing on car while chasing parrot. On second thought, that could probably happen to anyone.