Don't Panic! Lighten Up!
During her second day back at school since her hiccups began in January, Jennifer Mee had to leave class. Her nose started to bleed Thursday morning and then the hiccups returned.
Mee's mother, Rachel Robidoux, said her daughter is upset, discouraged and in pain.
"I'm at my wit's end," Robidoux said.
Mee returned to St. Petersburg's Northeast High School on Wednesday, and the 15-year-old ninth-grader hiccuped only twice.
"I realize it's supposed to be a festive time of conception and new growth in the womb of Mother Earth and all," Birch said. "But I just know that within an hour of arriving, things will get so bad that I'll be reverting to my 12-year-old self, hiding in the rec room downstairs, wearing my Iroquois false face mask and fingering my runes for comfort. It's not worth it."
Discovering that there were no bulldozers available, officials decided to employ a pachyderm from a travelling circus to help do the work.
"We didn't have any bulldozer to conduct the demolition drive in the city so our officers had to hire an elephant from the circus," said Barisal city corporation chief executive Abdul Mannan.
"Most policemen look hassled, drenched in sweat after coming from any scene of crime," said Somesh Singh, a designer at the National Institute of Design in Ahmedabad that drew up the uniforms on request of the state government.
"They are surely not the best person one would like to meet, but if they smell good and fresh one might as well approach them," said Singh.
Hall says strange occurrences have been a daily thing since she and her husband, Robert, took over the fire station and converted it into the FireHall Pub and Grille in 2005. Firefighters had told her that the building, more than a century old, may be haunted, she said.
It's little things that make Hall and others believe the place is haunted: The popcorn machine turns on by itself, lights flicker, doors latch by themselves and tools seem to move on their own, among other things, she said.
The rumor is that a firefighter named Frank hanged himself at the fire station many decades ago and his spirit remains inside, Hall said. The story has not been verified. She said the ghost has been harmless and should not be forced out.
"This is Frank's home," she said.
Cathy Simpson, a restaurant manager, said she, too, has experienced many things at the restaurant that are unexplainable. However, she said, she finds them comforting in a strange sort of way.