Odd Sport Canceled:
The 30-year-old traditional festival of eel-“bowling†in the fishing village of Lyme Regis, England, was canceled in July after complaints from an animal rights activist that it was disrespectful to eels.In the ritual, teams of anglers stand on platforms and swing a giant (but dead) conger eel, attached to the ceiling, to see who will be the last person standing.
Said a spokesman for the charitable event, which raises money for lifeboat crews, “But it’s a dead conger, for Pete’s sake. I shouldn’t think the conger could care one way or another.â€
How on earth do the English think up these crazy “Sports”?
Creating a new crime to do the time:
Leon Howard Matter was arrested in Sandusky, Ohio, in August for sending a letter containing “anthrax†(though it turned out to be harmless powder) to the local FBI office.
He told agents the reason he did it was because he was facing earlier child pornography charges and didn’t want to go to prison for that because he’d get beaten up. Threatening the FBI, he reasoned, has a better cachet.