Talk about ironic …

Steven Rautio decided to take revenge after having an argument with his girlfriend. He cut the tree that he and his girlfriend had just decorated for Christmas into pieces with a chain saw. He then put the pieces into a woodstove to burn them but the stove overheated. He probably stuffed it too full. The overheated wood stove ended up causing a fire that burned the house to the ground!

Then there’s the story about the U.K Noise Association and a British labor Union who suggested that they might take legal action against the torture that retail clerks in stores endure during the holiday season. What is that torture that got them so riled up? Continuous holiday music.

Well if they’re going to take legal action on behalf of the retail clerks they can take action for the shoppers too! When does holiday music usually start in the malls and stores - the beginning of November isn’t it? That’s almost two months solid of holiday music!

The newest self improving form of torture -

In October, health officials in China again warned citizens against the increasingly popular but seriously painful leg-stretching Ilizarov procedure. The procedure is believed to add as much as a couple of inches to a person’s height and stature.

The patient’s leg is deliberately broken and affixed to a rack, with the leg stretched slightly every day so that the bones fuse together to cover the separated space, lengthening the leg. One 33-year-old, 5-foot-tall woman in 2002, aiming for four more inches said “I’ll have a better job and a better husband. It’s a long-term investment.”

I think I’ve heard of procedures similar to this being used for people who are born with on leg shorter than the other, but never to purely gain inches in height.