There was a great kerfuffle down here recently about the blowing out of birthday candles on shared cakes being "banned" at schools and child care facilities, with the blowing out of candles to be limited to single unshared cupcakes. Or so it was reported by the media, in a state of high outrage. The National Health and Medical Research Council, who prepared the document, put a qualifier on its web page saying that it wasn't a "ban", just a recommendation. Of course that didn't make for as powerful an emotive, knee-jerk tabloid headline. Maybe the birthday boy just read the policy before the party!
