Wacky News ↓

USPS Cancels Santa Claus Mail Program

“Starry-eyed children writing letters to the jolly man at the North Pole this holiday season likely won’t get a response from Santa Claus or his helpers. The U.S. Postal Service is dropping a popular national program begun in 1954 in the small Alaska town of North Pole, where volunteers open and respond to thousands of letters addressed to Santa each year. Replies come with North Pole postmarks. Last year, a postal worker in Maryland recognized an Operation Santa volunteer there as a registered sex offender. The postal worker interceded before the individual could answer a child’s letter, but the Postal Service viewed the episode as a big enough scare to tighten rules in such programs nationwide. People in North Pole are incensed by the change, likening the Postal Service to the Grinch trying to steal Christmas. The letter program is a revered holiday tradition in North Pole, where light posts are curved and striped like candy canes and streets have names such as Kris Kringle Drive and Santa Claus Lane. Volunteers in the letter program even sign the response letters as Santa’s elves and helpers. North Pole Mayor Doug Isaacson agreed that caution is necessary to protect children.” w/ photo

Affectionate Cat Distracts Policeman

“A police department in Texas in the US has released footage of an over-affectionate cat distracting a policeman trying to issue a ticket to a motorist. The video, filmed by a camera in officer Keith Urban’s patrol car, shows the cat crawling up his leg and then onto his head. Captain Don Georgens from Taylor Police Department said the footage helped with our humour around the station.” w/ video

Biker Bites Man’s Ear Off

“A man had a chunk bitten out of his right ear during a fight with another man over whose motorbike was the fastest. Giving evidence against Phillip Joseph Butt, 26, who is on trial in the Cairns District Court for grievous bodily harm, victim Martin Atkinson, 27, yesterday described how he and his friend, Ben Tapscott, went looking for the alleged biter after the fight to see if he still had the piece of his ear in his mouth. “I wanted to find my piece of ear before it died on the ground so it could be re-attached,” Mr Atkinson said. “I said to Ben ‘have you seen my ear?’ and he said ‘no’… then I said ‘go and get my ear’.” The court heard Mr Butt and Mr Atkinson did not know each other before the incident.” w/ photos

Hole-In-Wall Traps Thief

“A Chinese burglar got stuck after he tried to crawl through a tiny opening built for a farmer’s pet dog to steal some chickens. The man had to be rescued by firefighters after he got stuck fast in the hole in a barn wall on the farm in Tianlin town, Guangxi province. The burglar sneaked into the farm in the middle of the night – and thought he would be able to wriggle his way through the tiny opening. “I underestimated the size of the hole and wrongly thought I could make it through,” he later confessed to police officers. He got stuck halfway through – and ended up trapped all night before finally being discovered the next morning, reports the Nanguo Morning Post.” w/ photo

Metrosexuals Banned To Curb Violence

“A party promoter has banned “metrosexuals” from a popular club night in a bid to stamp out violence. The promoter, credited with bringing the Perth-based event Dorcia to Melbourne in September, warned punters they would not get in wearing trademark metrosexual attire – for example, low-cut V-neck T-shirts, skinny jeans and pointed white shoes. Scott Mellor said the move was made to end a “sports jock mentality” and a growing trend of aggression inside clubs and bars. “We are really trying to push a party night that is a safe place to go and have a good time without worrying about safety,” the 27-year-old said. “We wanted to shed light on the problems with nightlife in Australia. We took everything that we disliked about going out to clubs and inverted it… no dressing up like David Beckham.” w/ photos

Woman Marries Boyfriend 1-Year After He Died

“Magali Jaskiewicz and Jonathan George had planned to wed at their local town hall in November 2008, but he was killed just two days before the ceremony in a motorcycle accident. Ms Jaskiewitz, 32, used a little-known section of the French civil code that allows posthumous marriages if all the formalities for the wedding were completed before one of the partners died, including the setting of a date. She proved to officials that she and Mr George had been living together since 2004 and that they shared a bank account… Around ten posthumous marriages are carried out each year in France, French interior ministry officials said.” w/ photos

Marriage Proposal Gone Wrong

“This is a story of love rewarded. Twice. James Ng was set to propose to his fiancée on a hot-air balloon ride when the symbol of their love fell 500 feet into the woods. Ng, 26, pastor of New Mercies Community Church, had hidden the 1-carat diamond ring in a box in his camera case. As they floated along on Oct. 29, the case slipped from his hands. “I just watched it tumble, and it hit a tree and spun around, and the stuff fluttered out of it,” Ng recalls. “And I just put my head down on the side of the balloon, and I was just — I just couldn’t believe I’d just done that. “My first thought was don’t tell her… and buy another ring — which it took me forever to afford the one I had,” Ng says. But Sonya Bostic, 27, caught on. “When he reacted the way he did, that’s when I knew,” she says. “Wait a second! My ring’s in there!” Ng dropped to one knee and proposed anyway. She said yes.” w/ video

Finding True Love By Cheek Swabbing

“Looking for love? Try leaning in for a… cheek swab. A couple of genetic testing companies are promising to match couples based on the DNA testing, touting the benefits of biological compatibility. The companies claim that a better biological match will mean better sex, less cheating, longer-lasting love and perhaps even healthier children. “How many dating services can you think of where they can suggest you might have better children?” said Eric Holzle, founder of ScientificMatch.com, one of the first online dating sites to use DNA. Holzle wouldn’t reveal membership numbers, but GenePartner, a Swiss company that works with matchmakers and dating sites, has tested more than 1,000 people, according to chief scientific officer Tamara Brown. Some were already coupled and took the test out of curiosity. The GenePartner Test is $99, and will be offered at the dating site sense2love.com when it relaunches next month.” w/ photo

The Word ‘Meep’ Banned From School

“Best known as the noise made by orange-haired lab assistant Beaker from The Muppet Show, ‘meep’ has now been outlawed at Danvers High School in Massachusetts – after claims the students were repeatedly disrupting class by saying it. Principal Thomas Murray said the disruption was planned on Facebook. The school has sent out automated calls to parents informing them of the new anti-meep policy, threatening that any students who continue to meep in class could face suspension.” w/ photo

Rings Found In 10 Tonnes Of Garbage

“Garbage workers successfully sifted through ten tonnes of rubbish to find a wedding ring and an engagement ring accidentally thrown away by a New Jersey couple. Bridget Pericolo, 77, had placed the rings in a cup that her husband, Angelo, threw out with the rubbish before leaving for work, reports the Daily Record. When Mr Pericolo realised his mistake, he contacted the town’s sanitation supervisor, who suggested visiting the local dump when the garbage truck had finished its route. Later that day, supervisor Michael Brotons and sanitation workers Edgar Lopez and Joseph McGee dug through the refuse until they found the Pericolos’ bag of rubbish. Mr Brotons said: “It took more than 45 minutes of digging, but we found them. After ten to 11 tonnes of garbage, every black bag looks the same.” w/ photo