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Letter to the editor

Global bizarre

By Times wires
Published March 13, 2008

Candy man canned

Some sweetness costs class Vice Prez his gig

Eighth-grader Michael Sheridan of New Haven, Conn., thought it was weird that the kid selling candy was being secretive, but he needed a sugar rush, so he bought a bag of Skittles. Now he is stripped of his class vice presidency, barred from the honors student dinner and suspended for a day. Seems that you aren't allowed to sell candy - even if it comes in the colorful form of a burst of fruity flavor - at New Haven schools as part of a wellness policy. By extension, you can't buy it, either. And as class vice president, he should have known that.

Mammal to mammal

Dolphin helps whales back to sea

Moko, a bottlenosed dolphin off the coast of New Zealand, appears to be acting as Mother Nature's tug boat. Rescue workers on Mahia Beach had spent more than an hour trying to get two beached pygmy sperm whales back out to sea. "They kept getting disoriented and stranding again," said Malcolm Smith, who was among the rescuers. Then along came Moko. She approached them, probably did the squeaky-voiced thing, then appeared to lead them out to deep water. "Moko just came flying through the water and pushed in between us and the whales," said Juanita Symes, another rescuer-turned-observer. "She got them to head toward the hill, where the channel is. It was an amazing experience."

Online voting

Polish politico hates Internet voting

Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the former prime minister of Poland, told members of his conservative party that he is against allowing people to vote online for one simple reason: The Internet is for porn. "I am not an enthusiast of a young person sitting in front of a computer, watching video clips and pornography while sipping a bottle of beer and voting when he feels like it," he was quoted as saying on his party's Web site. Kaczynski, who was writing about his party's totally perplexing inability to attract younger voters, also said he has no cell phone or bank account.

X-Ray reveals bones

Skull surprises airport security

An Italian woman was stopped at the airport in Munich, Germany, after security officials found a skeleton in her luggage. It was sealed in a plastic bag, but even so, you aren't supposed to do that without the proper paperwork. The skeleton was that of her brother, who died 11 years ago in Brazil. His last wish was to be buried in Italy. Turns out, she had all the proper paperwork and was allowed to continue on to Naples with her brother. Still, probably the kind of thing that's good to warn people about.

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

[Last modified March 12, 2008, 22:08:46]