Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Digest

Noteworthy

By TIMES WIRES
Published September 14, 2006

When he shaves, the terrorists lose

Gary Weddle of Ephrata, Wash., was so entranced by the news in the days following the events of Sept. 11, 2001, that he forgot to shave. Then he decided that he wouldn't shave until Osama bin Laden was either caught or killed. Weddle, above, thought it would take a month or so. But as that has stretched past five years, he's holding fast, despite the fact that his wife hates the whiskers. "I just don't feel there's any closure on this until they get that guy," Weddle said. He's committed to keeping it, "even if I get buried with it."

BUT IT'S ART

$1.1-million, but almost no sense

When dropping $1.1-million on a couple of paintings, you should put a little thought into how you're going to get them home. Maybe rent a truck. Or better, have them delivered. Gordon Syron of Sydney, Australia, decided to put them on the roof rack of his car. And he forgot to tie them down. When he got home, they weren't there anymore. Apparently, Syron doesn't spend a lot of time looking at the rear-view mirror, either. Perhaps unfairly, Syron got both pieces back, and neither was even damaged beyond some scratches on the frames.

How to succeed in the police business

Just to be clear, Spanish police don't actually think this is how you get promoted. It seems when a group of 120 officers in Madrid went to a video presentation on how to advance their careers, the video they saw was hard-core porn. Techs blamed a computer virus. One of those replacing-instructional-videos-with- porn viruses. Uh-huh.

WILD KINGDOM

Mostly sunny with scattered dead birds

It's bad enough when you're at a festival and it starts raining. But when dead pigeons fall out of the sky? That made last weekend's Quadrangle Festival in Texarkana, Texas, a little less festive. More than two dozen dead birds had to be cleaned up off the street after they ate poisoned corn from the roof of an area bank. The bank called an exterminator after a bird entered the bank during business hours and did the only kind of business birds really do, right on a customer. Everyone insists the corn was just supposed to make the birds sick and not want to live at the bank anymore. Whoops.

'Give me a peanut'

He's kind of like a parrot, but you wouldn't want him sitting on your shoulder. Kosik, a 16-year-old Asian elephant at a park in South Korea, can make sounds similar to eight Korean words, including "sit," "no," "yes," and "lie down." The sounds happen when Kosik puts his trunk in his mouth and shakes it while exhaling. Research supports the concept that elephants can learn to imitate sounds, but its unclear whether the elephant understand the meaning of the words.

'QUOTE'

"This is a lot harder than it was in the water."

Astronaut Joe Tanner, on hooking up a power cable in space, referring to the swimming pool where astronauts practice their chores at the Johnson Space Center.

[Last modified September 14, 2006, 01:14:06]