www.famsigvardsen.dk

Well, I promised the wife that I would stay away from the Sydney brothel scene, but I broke down after seeing an ad for an "Olympic Special." I did not partake in the carnal pleasures, but simply had to find out how the legal houses of ill repute were making out during this maddening time while visiting Sydney.

I was curious, as any good reporter would be, about their Olympic marketing push. One brothel had three specials: "Sprints," "Relays" and finally "Marathons." So with notepad in hand (it always helps to at least "look" like a reporter) I visited that brothel. If you were wondering, "Sprints" were for a quick thirty-minute romp with a lady of your choice; "Relays" sounded extremely interesting as a total of four different women would service a patron one after the other. I was told that each "leg" of the relay focused on a different pleasure. Finally, the "Marathon" was for an ex-tended four hour stint with a single woman.

But the extent of my inquiries were not simply relegated to understanding the clever marketing approach. We have readers from all over the world. Half of you are women, and you will be glad to know that the brothel also had a computer with photos of male studs from which ladies could choose. This was by appointment only, unlike the drop-in traffic off the street for men. I never did see any ladies patronizing the brothel though.

The woman who ran the place, "Violet", was matronly. She seemed more like a den mother than a lady pedaling sin. I interviewed her about which culture made the place the most money. She told me that hands down, Japanese men made the most money for the house. The reason? It seems (according to "Violet") that most Japanese men finish quicker than other ethnic groups. This means that there is more customer turn-over per worker. "Violet" sounded like a CPA. In case you were wondering what ethnic group had the least "turnover", the answer was Australia's own Aborigines. I never found out why.

I asked Violet how they were handling the extra business due to the huge influx of visitors. They had to import prostitutes from all over to accommodate the rush. They sent six prostitutes outside the country to recruit. They were given bonuses for every recruit brought into the country. The thing that struck me about this was how business-like the whole enterprise was. You had the feeling that McDonalds or SONY faced the same challenges as Violet.