Historical Fun

Stranger News: A look at some of the weirder stories hitting the headlines.   Missing: A big pile of crap.   A town in Spain has had its giant poo stolen. The town of Torrelodones, just outside Madrid, Spain, is facing a bill for 2,400 euros (nearly $3,000) after its 3 metre high inflatable dog turd was stolen.   I'm sure you are wondering why Torrelodones has a giant inflatable dog turd? It was part of a campaign aimed at dog owners to pick up their canine's droppings.   The town councillor, Angel Guirao, spoke to ABC newspaper, saying, "Staff were perplexed and shocked by the theft."   Adding, "Don't worry, though, we have already ordered a replacement excrement, as we know that the campaign has been a great success."   Have you seen anyone carrying a giant dog crap around town?   Probably not. It seems the thief was smart enough to wait until the Doggie Doo-Doo was deflated and stuffed into a car...

Stranger News: Chicken becomes Chief of Police As strange as it sounds, a Rooster in Japan became the chief of police in September due to his popularity and death-defying skills.   The chicken, who now has a name, Masahiro, defied death three times and, as such, shot into the Osaka residents' hearts, becoming a local celebrity. No stranger than those who go on reality shows and become famous. At the least the chicken actually has personality and skill.   Masahiro was down to be fed to raccoons at Tennoji Zoo in Osaka, Japan. It seems, those racoons can't get enough of deep-fried chicken. The local KFC is often frequented by them at the end of a night partying.   However, Masahiro was spared the trauma of being rolled in the special flour and fried to a nice crispy shine. A duckling who had no parents required a foster father. If only the badgers didn't like crispy duck so much, the duckling could have been raised by its real parents.   Nope, the ...

Stranger News: Lord Heseltine brutally murdered his dog and over 350 squirrels. Well, maybe not the dog, but the squirrels, yep, he massacred those little, grey feckers.   For some reason, unknown to virtually everyone, Lord Heseltine, the former Conservative Deputy Prime Minister of Britain, has been in the news today for strangling his pet dog.   Heseltine told Tatler magazine, and god only knows why, that his mother's pet dog, an Alsatian called Kim, had a mental breakdown, so he grabbed its choker chain and pulled it tight until he went limp. We assume he means the dog went limp, not him.   Various news broadcasts and social media immediately jumped on the non-existent bandwagon, with headlines purporting that Heseltine killed his mother's dog.   Lord Heseltine came back and explained they were a bunch of morons and it was a terrible misrepresentation of what actually happened.   This story gets a little stranger, as this incident didn'...

ALSO IN THE NEWS: CHURCH ANGRY AT GERMAN MEN TAKING THE PISS Ulm Minster, in Germany, which has the world's largest church tower, is having a problem with men spending a penny on the church.   The urine is destroying the stone base and the fear is that the church may collapse in the future if men continue to syphon the python on the structure.   As a punishment for blokes taking a leak the Pee-Police have doubled the fine for those caught to 100 euros.   However it seems to have made little difference.   Michael Hilbert, head of the department that maintains the building, and a semi-professional peepeeping Tom, said, "I've been keeping an eye on it for half a year now and, once again, it's coated with urine and vomit."   In Other News War between Lindsay Lohan and Kettering Borough Council escalates Gorilla Escapes London Zoo and Downs Five Litres of Undiluted Blackcurrant Squash Chinese city inundated with clean butts Kellog...

Also in the news: Some of the Stranger News stories Brides banned from dancing at their own weddings.   They are also banned from cutting the wedding cake with their new husband.   The Mayor of Grozny, in the Russian republic of Chechnya, banned cake cutting and any indecent dance moves at Chechen weddings.   The bans on cake cutting and indecent dance moves, as well as showing up drunk and being dressed in a way "that doesn't conform with the Chechen mentality" are an attempt by the Mayor to "Safeguard the spiritual and moral development" of young Chechens from what it believes are increasingly Western influences.   Whilst dancing, partners must be held at arms length. And under no circumstances should the bride be allowed to dance.   All Weddings in Chechnya will be observed by officials who will immediately put a stop to any inappropriate behaviour they witness.   Acting Minister of Culture, Khozh Baudi Daayev, said, "Our s...

Also in the news (a glance at some stranger news stories):   Butts, there are too many butts.   One Chineses city has had to stop offering tissues for butts because of too many butts.   In Shengzhou, Zhejuang Province, China, people were encoured to collect discarded cigarette butts from the streets and hand them in for a reward of a pack of tissues.   They were rewarded with a pack of tissues for every 50 cigarette butts they collected and handed in.   It proved popular. Way too popular. There were butts everywhere. However, not a lot of dirty butts. And you only get tissues for dirty butts. They were inundated with butts. Almost five million of them. But the authorities cried foul play as the butts didn't seem to be dirty enough. They believed people were shipping the butts from out of the city as they were just too clean to have been picked up from the streets. One old lady had over 9,000 butts. Probably from her own personal sup...

Stranger News: Gorilla Escapes London Zoo   Kambuka, a 29 stone sliverback gorilla, escaped from his enclouse at London Zoo on October 13th, 2016, in a daring prison break.   The gorilla didn't need to break any doors, or bend prison bars, or smash through hardened glass. Nope. The doors to his enclosure were left unlocked.   Kambuka took a chance and opened the doors, making a bolt for it. He made it all the way to a secure keepers' area, where he encountered a rather surprised keeper who, after a brief discussion, left to get the gun.   Kambuka took the opportunity to down five litres of undiluted blackcurrant juice.   Shortly afterwards, the gorilla was tranquilised and then returned to his enclosure.   Now that's a lot of undiluted blackcurrant squash.   I can only ever manage about one litre. On one occasion, I managed two litres of undiluted blackcurrant juice.   And, yes, after that, they had to tranqui...