Don't Panic! Lighten Up!S


Smiley

US town escapes 666 phone prefix

A town in the US state of Louisiana is to be allowed to change its telephone prefix so that residents can avoid a number many associate with the Devil.

Christians in Reeves have been unhappy since the early 1960s about being given the prefix, 666 - traditionally known as the Biblical "number of the beast".

For the next three months, households will be able to change the first three digits of their phone numbers to 749.

Mayor Scott Walker said CenturyTel's decision was "divine intervention".

However, he admitted it helped that Louisiana's two senators had also lobbied for the change with the phone company and the state Public Service Commission.

Smiley

Man rescued from Australian pub chimney after 10 hours: police

Police said Friday they were waiting to question a man who had to be rescued by firefighters after he got stuck in the chimney of an Australian outback pub.

Take 2

Hollywood squirrels get birth control

Forget killing pesky pests -- Hollywood's feeding birth control kibble to its pigeons.

The program is one of a number of experiments in giving contraceptives to nuisance animal populations including deer, squirrels and pigeons, which may carry disease, damage farmland or compete with native species for food, the Los Angeles Times said.

Some 300 Hollywood pigeons are eating OvoControl P in pill-shaped kibbles in a pilot program that hopes to half the city's pigeon population by 2012, the Times said.

Wolf

Chihuahua Helps Police Find Suspect

AUBURN, Calif. - A three-pound Chihuahua mix named Tink helped police put a fugitive in the clink.

The dog's Christmas Day adventure began when four suspects who were fleeing police crashed a stolen minivan into a hillside in this Sierra foothill town east of Sacramento, and one of them fled.

MIB

U.K. to launch James Bond stamps

The U.K. will launch six extra-long stamps to mark the centenary since the birth of Ian Fleming, known as the creator of the world's best known secret agent, James Bond, Royal Mail said Friday.

The stamps will be issued in January, 2008, and will feature different editions of Fleming's most famous novels, including Casino Royale and Dr No.

The 54 penny stamps will reveal the covers of Goldfinger and Diamonds Are Forever, and the final series of the 78 penny stamps will display For Your Eyes Only and From Russia With Love.

In October, 007, Her Majesty's secret agent, or just plain, "Bond - James Bond," celebrated 45 years as a big screen hero.

Dr No, the first of Ian Fleming's novels about the smooth-talking British spy to be made into a movie, was released in 1962.

Mail

Rare 'Upside-Down' Stamp Sells for $825,000

A collector from New York has purchased a rare 24-cent stamp depicting an upside-down airplane for $825,000, according to an auction house.

The unidentified buyer of the "Inverted Jenny" stamp was described as a Wall Street executive and longtime coin collector by Heritage Auction Galleries, which announced the sale Wednesday.

The 1918 stamp depicts a Curtiss JN-4 "Jenny," a World War I training aircraft that became an airmail plane. About 700 of the stamps were misprinted, but inspectors caught all of but 100 before they were sold.

Target

The Year in Review: World records

...and finally:

* Joey "Jaws" Chestnut, of San Jose, California, won this year's World Hot Dog Eating Championship at Coney Island, New York, having consumed 66 in 12 minutes - a world record, but disgusting.

* Jamaican sprinter Asafa Powell broke the world 100 metres record in September, running 9.74sec in Rieti, Italy.

* And let's hear it for Paul Collins of Seaton and Sonia Feukes of Poole, men's and women's winners of the 11th World Nettle Eating Championships in June at The Bottle Inn, Bridport, Devon.

Bizarro Earth

Chinese teenager has 24 fingers and toes

A Chinese teenager was born with six fingers and toes on each hand and foot, China's Xinhua news agency said on Thursday.

Hao Hao, 16, who weighs in at a hefty 135 kilograms (297 lbs), says his extra digits do not interfere with his life and he runs and climbs trees like any ordinary teenager.

However, his extra fingers mean he has difficulty holding a pen and has been unable to continue his education.

Smiley

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year: Pass the Razor Blades

Consider Kwanzaa and Chanukkah mentioned. One of my favorite activities during the holiday season is going out among the common folk to see how much Fun they're having. And golly, they're having so much fun. I never saw so much fun. Probably termites don't have this much fun. But hold on there, pardner. Don't get me wrong. I'm not one of these 'holiday malaise' types you see around. I don't get all despondent and start listening to The Smiths just because people have slapped a coat of glitter and some fairy lights over the smoking ruins of our nation, folks lurching around with manic grins smeared across their anxiety-ridden faces, trying this one last season to stave off the wolves of debt, homelessness, and shame. In fact I'm about as patriotic as they come, where Christmas is involved. Santa Claus, Baby Jesus, and Wal-Mart just about sums up the season for me, and not in any particular order. But there's something a little jaundiced about the proceedings this year, it seems. It could be something as minor as the voices in my head that tell me what I have to do to make the pain go away, or it could be something bigger, like the moral revulsion some people experience when they see millions of mindless zombies shopping their way to penury while the very planet convulses under the strain of their obscene lifestyles. But whatever the source, I find myself feeling kind of down this year. As always.

Beer

Santa in G-string arrested on DUI charge

LOS ANGELES - Some gifts from Kris Kringle are better kept wrapped.

A man in a Santa hat was arrested Sunday night for investigation of drunken driving after he was spotted outside Grauman's Chinese Theater in Hollywood wearing a wig, a red lace camisole and a purple G-string, police said.