Things you can't do amid U.S. shutdown (But spies laid off so "sext" away) These are stories Report on Business is following Thursday, Oct. 3, 2013. What you can and can't do Some slices of life from across an America in shutdown mode, courtesy of The Associated Press, The Washington Post, Forbes and CNN, via The Dollar Vigilante: Follow the trials and tribulations of Mike Cassesso and MaiLien Li at #shutdownwedding. Their marriage-to-be on the lawn by the Jefferson Memorial in Washington is threatened, as are others, such as a couple from New Jersey who want to get married at the Grand Canyon. Small mercy: Wedding night at the Hilton is probably more comfortable anyway. Expect delays if you're trying to adopt a small donkey, which you can, normally, actually do. Small mercy: The asses can't leave Washington. Public toilets are closed along the 184-mile C&O Canal route and national park, a popular bike route. Small mercy: There doesn't appear to be a lot of poison ivy along the way. The Armed Forces Retirement Homes in Washington and Gulfport, Miss., home to many of the 80-plus crowd, had to scrap Saloon Night. Small mercy: You can still rent the DVD of Animal House. Given that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms is affected, there could be trouble with gun permits. Small mercy: The NRA will have its knickers in a knot. There's a farmer in Wisconsin unable to cash a cheque for a cow he just sold because he needs someone at the Farm Service Agency to sign off on the sale. Small mercy: BBQ'd steak, anyone? Home buyers may have to wait because some mortgage providers need certain information on taxes and social security before they can approve a loan. Small mercy: No one really wants another housing bubble. The Ku Klux Klan can't hold a scheduled event at Pennsylvania's Gettysburg National Military Park. Small mercy: Do you really have to ask? If you were troubled by the National Security Agency's Prism program, whereby spooks scour the e-mails, online chats and social networking of folks using everything from Facebook to Skype, here's your chance. Some NSA staffers aren't deemed essential and are being laid off. Small mercy: Alison Pill can send selfies to her beau again, secure in the knowledge that some snoops are furloughed and will have to get their jollies elsewhere. But first she has to make sure she knows how to use her BlackBerry so she doesn't send them to thousands of her Twitter fans. Markets mixed Investor angst is growing as the Washington shutdown shows no sign of being resolved, leaving global markets mixed so far this morning. Better economic readings from China and the euro zone, however, are among the more optimistic signals. Tokyo's Nikkei dipped 0.1 per cent, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng gained 1 per cent. In Europe, London's FTSE 100 was up by 0.4 per cent by about 9 a.m. ET, though Germany's DAX was relatively flat and the Paris CAC 40 was down by 0.3 per cent. Dow Jones industrial average and S&P 500 futures slipped. BlackBerry up Shares of BlackBerry Ltd. are on the rise in premarket action this morning amid reports that the smartphone maker is drawing the interest of some potential suitors. As The Globe and Mail's Sean Silcoff and Jacquie McNish report, sources say Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd. has been surprised by how many parties are expressing an interest in joining its proposed $4.7-billion takeover of BlackBerry. And as Tara Perkins reports, Fairfax has now submitted a draft of its takeover agreement to the company. Fairfax proposes leading a consortium that would offer $9 a share. That BlackBerry shares are well below that figure, however, is a sign of doubt in the markets. Here's where it gets interesting: Cerberus Capital Management LP is looking at BlackBerry as it considers whether to bid. But it's not part of the Fairfax group, which raises the possibility of competing offers should it decide to proceed. BlackBerry shares are up by 0.8 per cent in premarket hours.