I'll be keeping this one updated on a pretty regular basis.

Tune in daily to check out the weirdness this world has to offer. :-)

Busted for not holding escalator rail

LAVAL, Quebec, May 17 (UPI) -- A Canadian woman says she was handcuffed and detained for disobeying a police officer's order to hold the rail on an escalator in the Montreal Metro.

Bela Kosoian said that she found police behavior "horrible, disgusting," the Toronto Globe and Mail reported. She plans to fight the two tickets she was given for failing to hold the rail and obstruction.

Kosoian, 38, said she was on her way to an evening class at the university late Wednesday afternoon when she was arrested. She said that she was trying to find money for the subway fare in her backpack when an officer ordered her to hold the rail.

The officer was with police in Laval, a Montreal suburb, not the Societe de Transport de Montreal.

"We were quite surprised to hear about this, we don't give fines for such things," said Isabelle Tremblay, a spokeswoman for the STM.

Blaze guts 11 fire engines at fire school

MORETON-IN-MARSH, England, May 16 (UPI) -- A fire in a workshop at a British Fire Service College gutted 11 fire engines in England Saturday.

The blaze did not spread beyond one building at the training institution in Moreton-in-Marsh, Gloucestershire, the BBC reported. But the engines alone were worth 1.3 million pounds (almost $2 million).

Scores of firefighters from Gloucestershire and two other counties battled the fire.

"The fire service is used to dealing with emergencies," Charlie Hendry, head of the Chief Fire Officers Association, said.

The Fire Service College opened 38 years ago. It can take 600 students at a time from Britain and other countries, providing advanced training for firefighters and other emergency workers.

Teddy bear barred from boarding plane

GLASGOW, Scotland, May 12 (UPI) -- A mother said her 6-year-old daughter's teddy bear was kept off a flight in Scotland by a check-in clerk who classified the doll as "excess baggage."

Amparo Peris-Bordes, 38, said she was told by the easyJet check-in clerk at the Glasgow, Scotland, airport that she would have to pay $14 to have the bear belonging to her daughter, Alba, stored with the checked luggage, The Daily Mail reported Tuesday.

Peris-Bordes said she decided to mail the bear back to her Willingham, England, home after a heated discussion with the female clerk.

"I was totally stunned when they said Alba couldn't have the bear in the cabin with her," she said. "I was carrying a big waterproof coat that was much bigger than the teddy and was allowed to take that on -- it was just a complete lack of common sense."

A spokesman for the airline said the company is offering to pay Peris-Bordes' postage costs.

"We have a strict baggage allowance on all our flights and this bear was not a small bear -- it could not fit into their hand baggage," he said. "However we do see that a common sense approach should have been taken and so this time we are offering to reimburse the parent concerned for postage."

"It is worth passengers considering that while we have restrictions as to size, unlike other airlines we have no restrictions on weight," he said.

China sex theme park demolished

China's first sex theme park, aimed at improving both the sex education and the sex life of its visitors, has been torn down before it even opened.

The owners were "interested only in profiting from sensationalism," the China Daily reported one official said.

Due to open in Chongqing in October, Love Land was to have included displays of giant genitalia, naked bodies and an exhibition on the history of sex.

The park was set to offer workshops on sex technique and safe-sex methods.

But the plans left Chongqing officials red-faced, correspondents say.

The officials called the planned park "vulgar, ill-minded and misleading", said China Daily.

"Sex is a taboo subject in China but people really need to have more access to information about it," the park's manager, Lu Xiaoqing told the China Daily state newspaper before the park was demolished.

"We are building the park for the good of the public. I have found that the majority of people support my idea, but I have to pay attention and not make the park look vulgar and nasty."

Among the attractions had been a giant rotating statue of the lower part of a nearly naked woman.

Damn! There goes my next vacation destination...

That one IS rather disappointing, isn't it??? lol

Drug testers show up at event, bodybuilders flee like girly-men

BRUSSELS (AP) - Ready to flex their pecs and strike a pose, bodybuilders at the Belgian championships scattered when doping officials showed up.

After a spate of positive doping tests in recent years in Belgium, the event had been moved across the Dutch border to Vlissingen for the weekend competition.

"They must have felt safe out there," doping official Hans Cooman told the Associated Press on Monday.

But Cooman and two colleagues got the necessary papers to check the tournament in the Netherlands. And when they identified themselves just before the event - with the 20 bodybuilders weighing in and preparing themselves - the testers drew quite a response.

The bodybuilders got up and left, preferring to quit rather than submit to doping tests. Some grabbed their gear and headed straight out the door.

"They must have been flabbergasted," Cooman said.

Bodybuilders usually take months to prepare for such championships, yet the sight of controllers was too much for them.

"I have never seen anything like it and hope never to see anything like it again," Cooman said.

Bodybuilding has a long history of doping, and Cooman said this latest flap "didn't do its reputation any good."

Last year, 22 of 29 tests were positive, either for steroids or for refusing testing, a failure rate of a staggering 75 percent.

"This was the first time though we turned up in the Netherlands," Cooman said.

Minutes before the start of the championships, before even one gleaming pose was on display, organizers had no option but to tell a few hundred fans that had come to the Arsenaal theater that there was not point in staying.

Now Cooman and his colleagues will report the case to the disciplinary committee, which will have to decide whether the bodybuilders can be punished because they refused to be tested.

A man who refused to give his name at the NABBA Belgium bodybuilding federation could not explain why the competitors had suddenly rushed off and would not discuss the matter.

British town hall nixes flag due to safety

BOURNE, England, May 19 (UPI) -- A British council said the Union Jack will no longer fly over its town hall due to safety concerns about the 8-foot ladder used to hoist the flag.

Officials with the South Kesteven District Council said its town hall in Bourne, England, will no longer fly the British flag for occasions, including Armed Forces Day and the upcoming Queen's birthday June 14, because it is too dangerous for the site manager to climb an 8-foot ladder to install the flag on the building's pole, The Sun reported Tuesday.

Brian Fines, 72, a member of the council and former mayor as well as a former lieutenant colonel in the military, said the decision is an insult to veterans and armed services members.

"What a sad and sick society we're becoming," he said. "This despotic government's health and safety laws have prevented the council flying a flag from the building that's the hub of our town. We're told they're not allowed to use a ladder to access the mast, which is ridiculous. It's annoying and upsetting a lot of people."

Fines and others upset by the decision have suggested installing a new flag pole that would eliminate the safety concerns.

The council has not yet made a public response to the concerns.

Gold tooth led to Mets toilet mishap

NEW YORK, May 20 (UPI) -- Sources with New York's Citi Field said a fan attending a Mets game wound up with her arm stuck in a toilet while trying to retrieve a fallen gold tooth.

The sources said stadium security guards and emergency medical responders found the woman screaming in the restroom Wednesday during the game against the Atlanta Braves, the New York Post reported Wednesday.

The woman told security officers her gold tooth had fallen into the toilet and her arm became lodged in the commode while she was trying to retrieve it.

The sources said a Cardoza Plumbing employee had to travel from the company's headquarters 7.2 miles from Citi Field to free the woman. Cardoza is the company that installed the 646 ultra-low-flow toilets at the stadium.

It was unclear whether the toilet, near Section 338, was destroyed during the rescue.

252-lb hooker 'one woman demolition job'

BERLIN, May 21 (UPI) -- Numerous neighbors of a 252-pound prostitute in Berlin are asking a judge to put her out of business because of the shaking of her apartment.

Tenants of the building where Ilnes Lorbach, 36, lives and legally entertains her prostitution clients told the Administrative Court in Berlin the sex worker's lovemaking causes their apartments to shake, the British tabloid The Sun reported Thursday.

One neighbor told the court a pair of valuable Baccarat crystal glasses fell from a shelf and broke as a result of the shaking.

Carolso Hoffmann, who lives next door to Lorbach, compared his living situation to "that film 'Earthquake.'"

"I don't know if the earth moved for her clients but it did for us," he said. "When you have a 100-plus kilo women grappling like a wildebeest with her clients then you know about it, you really do. She's a one-woman demolition job."

Lorbach told the court she is "a mother and as a working woman," attempts to be "as discreet as possible."

The judge in the case reserved judgment for "a later date."

sounds like a hooker i know named Plum

3-year-old buys earthmover on TV auction

WELLINGTON, New Zealand, May 22 (UPI) -- A 3-year-old New Zealand girl who got access to the family computer while mom took a nap bought an earthmover for $20,000, sources say.

All little Pipi Quinlan needed were a few mouseclicks to make the winning bid on the Konelco digger at the auction site "Trade Me."

Pipi's mother, Sarah Quinlan, said she had been bidding on some toy sets and thought she had bought a toy digger. Then, she saw the $20,000 price tag and "got the shock of my life."

A phone call to the show set things straight, the Daily Telegraph said.

Man calls 911 over 28-year-old son's messy bedroom

BEDFORD, Ohio – An Ohio man who argued with his grown son over a messy bedroom said he overreacted when he called 911. Andrew Mizsak called authorities Thursday after his 28-year-old son — who's a school board member in the Cleveland suburb of Bedford — threw a plate of food across the kitchen table and made a fist at him when told to clean his room.

The son, also named Andrew, lives in a room in his parents' basement.

The father declined to press charges and told police he doesn't want to ruin his son's political career.

The son, who also works as a political consultant, said he's lucky to be living in the house rent free. He also promises to keep his room clean.

Accused tire slasher blames mom, radiation, braces

BOULDER, Colo. – Police said a man arrested for slashing the tires of nearly 50 vehicles blamed his mother, radiation and braces for the spree. Officers arrested 31-year-old man last Thursday on suspicion of criminal mischief and carrying a concealed weapon. Police say one officer spotted the suspect crouched behind a police SUV at about 7:15 p.m. Thursday, went to investigate and discovered a tire leaking air.

Boulder police spokeswoman Sarah Huntley said the man indicated he was frustrated over his relationship with his mother and blamed radiation from the former Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant near Golden. He also said his desire to slash tires stemmed from his getting braces in the 1990s.

Police said he's admitted slashing tires on 46 vehicles.

Woman blasts off boyfriend’s penis with firecrackers
25 May, 05:07 PM

A Russian woman got so upset by the news that her boyfriend intended to leave her that she tied several firecrackers to his penis and exploded them, the Life.ru web-site reports.

The 33-year-old victim, identified as Alik D. had lived with the woman whose name was reported as Kira V. for about two years, but when the girlfriend started suggesting that they should marry, the man refused and said that he would rather return to his first wife with whom he had a son.

When Alik started moving out Kira suggested that they had a farewell dinner. After a hearty meal and some heavy drinking Alik fell asleep. The girlfriend tied several firecrackers to Alik’s penis and exploded them. The man was rushed to intensive care and doctors are reported to be fighting for his life.

Even if the man survives the girl will face up to 12 years imprisonment.

Man wearing only a thong charged in burglary

ANDERSONVILLE, Tenn. – Deputies said a man who was caught wearing a woman's thong was charged with a burglarizing a home. Chief Deputy Mark Lucas said deputies caught the 42-year-old man only wearing panties in an abandoned farm house. The officers followed his footprints from a nearby Andersonville home where a burglary had been reported.

The man was charged with aggravated burglary, auto burglary and vandalism on Monday and was held on a $65,000 bond in the Anderson County Detention Facility.

The Knoxville News Sentinel reported the man was released from the same jail May 21 after being arrested in Norris for property crimes.

Medical user claims pot switcheroo

BREMERTON, Wash., May 28 (UPI) -- Police in Washington state said a medical marijuana user told authorities that her bag of legal pot was switched with a bag of weaker weed at a party.

The Bremerton woman said she took her "stronger" medical marijuana to the party Friday to "maintain control of it" and at some point during the gathering a man told her she had dropped her bag of cannabis and handed it back to her, the Kitsap Sun of Bremerton reported Thursday.

However, the woman said she brewed a pot of marijuana-laced tea the next morning and noticed the drug was not as potent as it had been. The woman told police she used some of the marijuana and threw the rest away. She gave the empty bag to police.

Late golf-crazy man hoarded 40,000 balls

SASKATOON, Saskatchewan, May 29 (UPI) -- The Canadian family of a dead Saskatoon man who was passionate about golf say they've found more than 40,000 golf balls he hoarded at his home over decades.

Barry Grosse, 64, was struck by a car and killed last September while riding his bicycle, and nephew Phil Grosse is cleaning out his uncle's home, the Saskatoon StarPhoenix said Friday.

Grosse said his uncle, who was a retired school principal, became passionate about golf in early childhood and spent countless hours playing and collecting golf balls from various courses.

"I don't know how many of them he tripped over in the bush, I don't know how many he actually dug for in the bush, I don't know how many balls he fished out of a pond," the younger Grosse said. "All I know is he's got about 40,000 golf balls."

The nephew works as marketing and communications coordinator for the Saskatchewan Golf Association, and about 32,000 of the balls are being donated for use in its youth program, the report said.

The other 8,000 will remain in the family for sentimental reasons, Grosse said.