In journalism, stories that seem to come up regularly … stories endemic to your coverage area … sometimes are lumped under the topic of “standing heads”.

Coming from the time when newspaper pages were put together using hot metal letters, via linotype machines, and linotype operators kept already prepared certain common topics. Thus, they were “standing heads”.

A back formation of this was newspaper people blurting “standing head!” when a story common to the newspaper would pop up again.

In Los Angeles, that might be an earthquake. In Detroit it might be a murder. In India, it might be a bus crash.

In the UAE, the No. 1 “standing head” is probably another incident of Britons drinking too much … and getting into all sorts of trouble.

Here is a “standing head” of the UAE:

Drunk Briton smashed statue at Atlanta hotel, Dubai court hears.

In short, a 36-year-old British guy was celebrating a friend’s birthday in Dubai before the party moved to one of Dubai’s post addresses, Atlantis, the Palm.

By this time, The National’s story confides, the Briton had been “drinking beer, vodka, champagne and cocktails”.

Any which of one could impair someone’s judgment. (Not surprisingly, this happened on a Friday, an off day here, known for long and exceedingly boozy “brunches” at major hotels.)

So, it was no surprise that our Briton was noticed to be in a “drunken state” by hotel security, which apparently thought that his departure would be a good thing for the hotel.

But as The National notes:

“Before being restrained, he smashed a statue worth Dh3,000” — or about $815.

“A security guard told the court he received a call that a drunk customer had broken a statue.

“He tried to calm him down then asked for his ID card. (He) refused and then swore at him.”

(Note. Bad language is a very bad idea in the UAE, and the region … it is taken very seriously. People go to jail for bad language.)

“I asked him to leave but he wouldn’t so I restrained him, but my boss came and asked me to let him go,” the guard said.

“As I did, the defendant punched me in the face and then kicked me on my left leg, before he snatched my iPhone and broke it into pieces.”