Oddities and Humor

A vicar has revived an ancient law to call members of her parish together for archery practice.

The Reverend Mary Edwards, of Collingbourne Ducis, near Marlborough, called residents to the village recreation ground on Friday.

Residents were rewarded for complying with the law with a bar, a barbecue and live music.

Church warden Mike Cox said: "It seems she's still entitled to do that."

"I've been checking on the web and most archery experts and clergy seem to agree she is," Mr Cox added.

"Though a lot of the laws were repealed, that particular one still stands so she's entitled to call the men of the village, and presumably the women and children too, to archery practice.

"Mary's always wanted to do it ever since she found out she could. It's been one of those hankering ambitions. It's sufficiently bizarre that you want to have a go at it."

Mrs Edwards said: "It's an unrepealed law from some time in the middle ages and I can call all the men - but I've extended it to all people - in the parish to archery practice.

"We are celebrating the building of a new loo in the church. After all these years we have at long last brought running water to the church."

A new loo in the church? Love it, edgar.

Don't know if this is the right streak, but it seems to match the news item.



http://news.yahoo.com/nphotos/Hayabusa-southern-Australia-Glendambo-journey/photo//100614/481/urn_publicid_ap_org_c44333b52724456290a26dbfbfddf22c//s:/ap/20100614/ap_on_sc/as_australia_space_landing

That's a great story, letty. I am eager to find out what they accomplished.

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2010/06/14/woman.shoots.self.health.wsbt?hpt=T2
Here is the tale of a woman who could not afford proper care for her condition. Since nobody would help, she shot herself in the arm, hoping that would upgrade her condition to serious enough to be cared for.

is this a pew with a loo ?

I think it may be spelled P-U.

My word, edgar. I guess we do what must be done to get treatment for pain. That was odd, however.

hbg, funny.



Here are the results of the capsule, Texas.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jbGWxryxkvUUxHdPWy7VYjKiDIKwD9GB2I580

Thanks for the update on that, letty. It was remarkable acheivement, regardless of the final analysis.

This statue was struck by lightning. It burned to the ground.

DENVER – An American man has been detained in the mountains of Pakistan after Pakistani authorities found him carrying a sword, pistol and night-vision goggles on a Rambo-style solo mission to hunt down and kill Osama bin Laden.

Friends and family say construction worker Gary Brooks Faulkner is a devout, good-humored Christian who has traveled widely in that part of the world.

The 51-year-old Faulkner, who has a lengthy arrest record and served time in a Colorado prison, arrived June 3 in the town of Bumburate and stayed in a hotel there. He was assigned a police guard, as is common for foreigners visiting remote parts of Pakistan.

When he checked out without informing police, officers began looking for him, according to the top police officer in the Chitral region, Mumtaz Ahmad Khan. Faulkner was found late Sunday in a forest.

"We initially laughed when he told us that he wanted to kill Osama bin Laden," Khan said. But when officers seized the weapons and night-vision equipment, "our suspicion grew." He said the American was trying to cross into the nearby Afghan region of Nuristan.

Chitral and Nuristan are among several rumored hiding places for bin Laden along the mountainous border between Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Pakistan's military and intelligence establishment generally deny the possibility that bin Laden is hiding somewhere along the Pakistan-Afghan border, as Western intelligence agencies believe.

Faulkner's sister, Deanna M. Faulkner of Grand Junction, Colo., said her brother suffers from kidney disease that has left him with only 9 percent kidney function. But she told The Associated Press that she did not think his illness was his motivation to go to Pakistan.

"I don't believe this was, 'I'm dying, and I'm going to do a hurrah thing,'" she said. She said her brother was "very religious" but would not elaborate.

Family members have not heard from him since he left the country, his sister said.

On Tuesday, Faulkner was being questioned by intelligence officials in Peshawar, the main northwestern city. He has not been charged with any wrongdoing.

Khan said Faulkner told investigators he was angry after the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States.

"I think Osama is responsible for bloodshed in the world, and I want to kill him," Khan quoted him as saying.

When asked why he thought he had a chance of tracing bin Laden, Faulkner replied, "God is with me, and I am confident I will be successful in killing him," Khan said.

He said police confiscated a small amount of hashish, enough for a single joint, from Faulkner.

"I'm worried about him," his sister said. "I'm worried that in Pakistan, they won't give him his dialysis. And if he doesn't get it, he's in serious trouble."

Bin laden, who is also reported to have kidney problems, has evaded a massive manhunt since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, which he is accused of masterminding along with other attacks. The federal government has offered a bounty of $25 million for information leading to his capture.

Faulkner's brother, Scott Faulkner, said his brother is "doing something that we would all wish to do."

"If we saw Osama walking down the sidewalk ... well, I know I would probably put a bullet in the guy's head. Yes, I'm a doctor, but I'm still an American," he told CNN.

Scott Faulkner said his brother had been to Afghanistan at least six times and had "picked up quite a bit" of the local language, grown a long beard and "looked like Taliban."

"He could blend in with the local population and go places that our military cannot go," he said, adding that his brother "has some assistance. He's made friends. I will not tell you who those friends are because that's up to Gary to reveal his sources."

At Faulkner's last known address, a modest apartment building in the northern Colorado town of Greeley, no residents answered their doors Tuesday. An apartment manager would not confirm whether Faulkner still lived there.

Hugo Corral, who owns a barber shop in Greeley, recalled cutting Faulkner's hair a few months ago. He said Faulkner was quiet and wouldn't answer his questions. After the haircut, Corral said, he saw Faulkner acting strangely outside his shop.

"He would walk, then stop, then do something like he was saluting something. It was kind of weird," Corral said. Through the glass of his shop, he said he could hear Faulkner cursing at no one in particular.

Gary Faulkner was in and out of Colorado state prisons between 1981 and 1993, serving a total of about seven years in five separate stints for burglary, larceny and parole violations, state officials said.

The Larimer County sheriff released a mug shot from a 2006 arrest on charges of failing to have car insurance. In the photo, Faulkner has shoulder-length gray hair parted in the middle with bangs that reach the sides of his wire-rim glasses.

He also has a shaggy, black beard with traces of gray hair in it, and he appears to be wearing a camouflage-patterned shirt.

Faulkner allegedly told Pakistani police he visited Pakistan seven times, and this was his third trip to Chitral, a mountainous region that attracts adventurous Western tourists and hikers. Unlike much of northwestern Pakistan, it is considered relatively safe for foreigners.

Deanna Faulkner said her brother had been "all over the world many times" but declined to give details of past trips.

U.S. Embassy spokesman Richard Snelsire said the embassy had received notification from Pakistani officials that an American citizen had been arrested. He said embassy officials were trying to meet the man and confirm his identity.

Deanna Faulkner said her brother usually gets dialysis every three days but can go up to two weeks without it.

"We contacted the State Department to let them know of his medical condition and that his family is here and we love him," she said.

___

Chris Brummit reported from Islamabad. Associated Press Writer P. Solomon Banda in Denver and AP researcher Jennifer Farrar in New York also contributed to this report.

Does anybody watch this TV show? I do now and then.

KENNER, La. — Authorities in the New Orleans area say a cab driver is accused of locking a Texas tourist in his cab and demanding a 10 percent tip on a $33 airport fare.

The Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office says in an incident report that 37-year-old Sohail Kahn was booked with extortion and false imprisonment, and the New Orleans Taxicab Regulation Bureau also seized his permit.

Kahn could not be reached for comment Wednesday by The Associated Press because he has no listed phone number.

The Times-Picayune quotes the incident report as saying the passenger, a 57-year-old woman from Bellaire, called 911 from her cell phone after arguing with the driver for a half-hour.

And here was me thinking that tipping was "optional".

What a idiot this cab driver is!

I have seen people go to pretty good lengths to get tips. Once, in a restaurant, the waiter brought out exactly how many dollars he wanted in quarters when he gave my change. A friend in NYC had his truck getting worked on. It was not that big a job, but the mechanic kept telling my friend, "I don't know if I can have it ready today." After a long standoff, my friend gave the mechanic a substantial tip, and the truck was rolled out, all fixed up, in less than ten minutes.

Well, I know what I would do. I would no longer shop at those businesses!

I just remembered my first day in New York City. I went in some hole in the wall coffee shop and had a cup. The man serving me stuck all of my money in the register. "I kept the change for a tip," he said. It was not a lot of money. I figured it must be the way they do things there. But I was carefull after that to carry small bills and lots of change.

Hey Edgar, here's a nice little story to add to your collection of oddities.

It's a small story where some group in Vancouver bought some cars, took out the engines, and put trees there instead! Photo included.

http://stickshiftproject.com/2010/06/17/102/#comments

Great, Reyn, and here's another. The body of Big Foot?



Billy Willard's story.
Here in Spotsylvania County, in the forests around Lake Anna, Willard claims there have been 14 sightings in the past decade of that most fabled of cryptozoic beasts: Bigfoot.
Or Sasquatch, as the elusive, apelike brute is referred to in more high-minded circles -- and on the side of Willard's blue pickup. The decal on the truck reads "Sasquatch Watch of Virginia," of which Willard is chief pooh-bah (when he's not earning a living installing and removing underground home oil tanks).
Go ahead, call him a loon, a flake, a huckster. He's heard it all. But Willard knows what he knows, which is that three people from this area -- a woman, her husband and their granddaughter -- told him they saw a shaggy, super-size figure on two legs gallivanting across their wooded property. Last month, Willard led a weeklong expedition to the site, where he installed five motion-sensor cameras that will snap photos if the big galoot wanders by again.

Say, that's ridiculous.

Well, letty, I have never seen big foot in Tomball. That's all I am saying. Some years back, there were constant sightings, in Texas, of Big Bird, a six foot tall bird of some sort. Eventually the sightings dropped off and nobody today seems to believe it exists.