Tue Nov 19, 9:49 AM ET Add Oddly Enough - Reuters to My Yahoo!

BERLIN (Reuters) - A group of weary Berliners have gone to court to try to close down a swingers' club on the ground floor of their building whose members' moans of pleasure and screams of delight are keeping them awake.

"My wife has to reach for the ear plugs every night because the unmistakable sounds of sexual intercourse can be heard throughout the building," said one lawyer who lives on the first floor, directly above the club known as "Zwielicht" -- a German word meaning both "twilight" and "dubious."

"We've been forced to come up with our own noise to drown out the sounds from down below," he added.

Even though tenants get a 25 percent discount on the rent because of the noise, they told the Berlin state court they had had enough and wanted the club closed down, Berlin's B.Z. daily reported on Tuesday.

Apart from the noise, they say the club is lowering the tone of the smart Charlottenburg district.

Lawyers for the building's owner said the club always paid the rent on time and should be allowed to stay.

Berlin actress Anouschka Renzi told the court she was tired of seeing half-naked men clad only in bathrobes getting out of stretch limousines on their way into the club. "This is not a red-light district," she said.

-- Anonymous, November 19, 2002

Answers

First question: Who was there first, the moaners or the groaners?

-- Anonymous, November 20, 2002