April 2009 Archives

A Bolivian football team's former physiotherapist says he gave players the sex drug Viagra to help them play at high altitude in the main city.
Rodrigo Figueroa told La Prensa newspaper he had prescribed Viagra, which oxygenates the blood, to at least nine players in his team.

Roman Catholics in Philadelphia were stunned when coverage of the Good Friday service from the Vatican was interrupted by an advert for pornography.
Broadcaster Comcast said the live transmission of the service from St Peter's Basilica was interrupted by the advert for the Girls Gone Wild series of films as part of an emergency alert test.
A spokesman revealed the problem affected the network's entire local area, but only one person called to complain.

Here's one from the USA - involving a murder trial hinging on whether you can drown in a toilet.

US prosecutors are looking for a 5ft 8in female prepared to stick her head in a toilet to try and prove a murder case.

What could be finer than sending a boatload of vets off to learn to bongo drum - at mine and your expense. Good grief.

Government officials have come under fire for sending vets and animal health experts on away-days at the taxpayer's expense at which they were taught to play the bongos.

The Animal Health agency, the Environment Department's (Defra) body responsible for the fight against diseases such as bovine TB and bluetongue, spent around £500,000 on a series of 15 one-day conferences around the country.

A spate of wheelie bin fires in Huddersfield overnight made me think of a bizarre tale from the charming, neighbouring hamlet of Barnsley.

Who says South Africa isn't ready for next year's World Cup? Examiner sports editor Mel Booth got this from a pal across there.

See the headline is correct - football makes a concrete bridge collapse - see below for the picture

And they say parents don't spend enough time with their children.

Here's the charming story of a bloke who robbed a shop - with his daughter for company

Do you remember Sherlock Holmes?
Well, you probably won't recognise him from the new version.
Have a read of this from America's Associated Press new agency: "Robert Downey Jr gave US cinema bosses a sneak preview of his new take on Sherlock Holmes, which turns the cerebral detective into a wisecracking action hero who is handcuffed naked to a bed.
"Cinema owners attending their annual ShoWest convention in Las Vegas got to see Downey's Holmes in a bruising boxing match, diving from a tall building into the Thames and trading barbs with roommate Dr Watson, played by Jude Law, who complains about the detective's slovenliness and nocturnal violin playing.
"Holmes, does your depravity know no bounds?" Watson asks the detective.
"In one scene from the film, Sherlock Holmes, directed by Guy Ritchie, a naked Holmes finds himself cuffed by both hands to a bed.
"Downey also turns the detective into something of a ladies' man as his Holmes gets a romantic interest (Rachel McAdams).
"Conan Doyle's Holmes lived a monk's life, save for one purely platonic dalliance with a female foil whose intellect he greatly admired."

You can't imagine Basil rathbone knocking out Watson before indulging in some sub-duvet action with Moriarty's missus can you?

Elementary my dear Watson.

Hello, good evening and welcome as Frosty used to say.
What a day to launch a new blog - April Fools Day - I'm not sure if this is a joke myself!
I'll be endeavouring to find all those weird but true things, wacky pictures and the like from around the world.

The spark for this blog was a picture of Monkey Man we rediscovered recently. This is what is on wikipedia about said chap: "In May 2001, reports began to circulate in the Indian capital New Delhi of a strange monkey-like creature that was appearing at night and attacking people. Eyewitness accounts were often inconsistent, but tended to describe the creature as about four feet (120 cm) tall, covered in thick black hair, with a metal helmet, metal claws, glowing red eyes and three buttons on its chest.

"Theories on the nature of the Monkey Man ranged from an avatar of a Hindu god, to an Indian version of Bigfoot, to a cyborg that could be deactivated by throwing water on the motherboard concealed under fur on its chest.

"Many people reported being scratched, and two (by some reports, three) people even died when they leapt from the tops of buildings or fell down stairwells in a panic caused by what they thought was the attacker.

"At one point, exasperated police even issued artist's impression drawings in an attempt to catch the creature. Many today still believe this "monkey man" continues to haunt the streets."

How comes you never get Cyborg monkey men in Shepley?

Anyway - the best bit is this - the picture - I favour the eyewitness description myself, definitely not based on mass hyesteria