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Letter to the editor

The skinny

By Times Wires
Published December 1, 2007

Thievery

Always take the tags off of your holiday items

After Shane Clouse's Montana Wreaths & Pink Grizzly Christmas Store in Missoula, Mont., was robbed, he reported it. Then when he saw a guy walking around with a cart full of stuff taken from the store, he got suspicious. Then when he saw the guy's front yard and noticed a bunch of his missing items - with the price tags from his store still attached - he was pretty sure he knew who did it. Police arrested Michael Allard and charged him with burglary. He says he just picked up discarded items outside the store.

Beer robber steals almost 40,000 pints

Police in Ireland are looking for the person who managed to steal 450 kegs from the Guinness brewery in Dublin. While it is the largest heist ever against the brewer, there is no indication that it will go in the Guinness Book of World Records. Apparently, a man working alone drove into the brewery and hitched a trailer to his truck and drove away. The trailer had 180 kegs each of Guinness stout and Budweiser, and 90 kegs of Carlsberg. The street value of the brew is about $235,000.

In uniform

U.S. fixes 'crotch durability problem'

The Army is taking a look at how to fix some equipment that the troops in Iraq and Afghanistan are using every day. The equipment is their pants, and the issue has been identified as "crotch durability problems." "It is a serious problem," said military analyst Loren Thompson, so no snickering. Apparently, the new uniforms issued in 2004 were merely single-stitched in the volatile region, and inseams are blowing out. Improved uniforms began shipping out last year.

Marketing genius

Short on slogan, they offer sentiment

The Times of London reports Scotland spent six months and $250,000 trying to come up with a better slogan than "The Best Small Country in the World." And so the new slogan was revealed on Tuesday on signs outside the airport. Drum roll, please ...: "Welcome to Scotland." Frankly, it seems like they should've been able to get that faster and cheaper. Of course, on the sign it is printed in Gaelic, so it actually says, "Failte gu Alba." But still. "If the purpose of branding is to create an emotional connection, they're not doing that," said consultant Anita Califano.

Update

Buried Belvedere

The 1957 Plymouth Belvedere that was unearthed over the summer in Tulsa as part of the 50th anniversary of Oklahoma statehood has been shipped off to New Jersey for preservation. "We have to stop the rust, because if nothing is done, this car will be dust in two years," said Dwight Foster, of the rust remover company. When the city opened the vault with the car, they found it had leaked, leaving the car very rusty.

Compiled from Times wire services and other sources by staff writer Jim Webster, who can be reached at jwebster@sptimes.com.

[Last modified December 1, 2007, 00:07:07]