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Prepare for an old-fashioned blogposting that celebrates the trivial and (mostly) unimportant...

NEWS FROM NOWHERE

* Hundreds of sheep have been rustled from two Northumberland farms - 270 from Elsdon, 30 from Bellingham.  Police said that sheep-rustling is a concern ‘because of its effects on business’.

* An obsessed fan of the musical Rock of Ages has spent £15,600 to see it 500 times since 2009.  Abe Calimag (what an awe-inspiring name!) of Virginia has travelled all over the world to see the 80s-themed show.  He says that seeing the same show is ‘what I enjoy’.  And why not?

* Conservationists are attempting to restore habitats for dormice along canals and rivers following a 600-mile survey of historic hedgerows.  The hazel dormouse, famed as a character in Alice in Wonderland, is under threat from loss and fragmentation of its habitat.

* The Latin motto engraved on the wall of a new library in Moorestown, New Jersey, got lost in translation.  Officials had thought that the phrase Nos secundus coniecto omnia meant We confirm all things twice.  But in fact it means We second-guess everybody.  The engraving is set to be changed.

* A new attraction is gracing the Eiffel Tower.  The newly-renovated first-floor was unveiled on Tuesday - it’s a glass floor that visitors can stand on more than 50m (164ft) in the air and look straight down to the ground.  The 2-year renovation was inaugurated by Paris’ mayor Anne Hidalgo and cost 30m€ (£23.5m).

* The Pope got an unexpected lecture on the joys of sex from a Catholic couple brought in to talk about what makes a marriage last.  Ron and Mavis Pirola, parents of four from Sydney, told a Vatican gathering of some 200 prelates that great marriage boils down to great sex.

* When officials went to congratulate Sogen Kato - supposedly the oldest man in Japan - on his 111th birthday, they found skeletal remains in his bed.  Mr Kato had probably been dead for 30 years.  His granddaughter had told officials that he ‘didn’t want to see anybody’.  Police are investigating the family on possible fraud charges.

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THINGS YOU DIDN’T KNOW YOU DIDN’T KNOW

More intriguing facts from a wonderful tome Hildie gave me at Christmas…

* Locust swarms move so fast because each locust is trying to eat the one in front and avoid being eaten by the one behind.

* A medium-sized tube of toothpaste contains enough chemicals to kill 13 dogs.

* Mothers over 40 are twice as likely to have left-handed children than women in their 20s.

* Charles Darwin’s tortoise Harriet died in 2006 aged 176.

* King George IV had a pet giraffe.

* Multiplying 21978 by 4 reverses the order of the numbers.

* MOW, NOON and SWIMS read the same upside down.

* Adolf Hitler bit his nails.

So now you know...

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CONTACT ME
Post comments on this blog or email me:  truckshunters@googlemail.com