One of the biggest societal problems facing the people of the British resort town of Torbay is: How do drunk women walk home from a party on high heels? Thanks to a government grant, that problem is being tackled. Volunteers will be deployed to hand out free flip-flops to anyone who can't walk at the elevation their shoes would mandate, or anyone who simply lost their shoes. Apparently, that happens a lot. Officials hope this will cut down on calls to paramedics. "Let's not make it gender specific," police inspector Adrian Leisk said. "There are plenty of times when young men go out and lose their footwear, if you know what I mean." No, but we'll accept that it is a big problem.
Signs of the season
At zoo, all that glitters is not gold
The reindeer at Miller Park Zoo in Bloomington, Ill., are horning in on the work of elves. Ealu and Rika are now in the business of making holiday ornaments. Staff at the zoo are taking the droppings from the deer, clear-coating them, painting them and rolling them in glitter. The decorations sell in the zoo's gift shop for $5. Customers are surprised at how small the marble-sized raw material is. "Reindeer are so big," zoo maintenance worker Sheldon Williams said. But the droppings are "just a big pile of small."
Currency events
Style triumphs over species on bill
The people in Bermuda who make the decisions about what pictures to put on the country's money decided to honor the native white-tailed tropicbird on the new $50 bill. A huge win for local bird lovers, right? Sort of. Except for the fact that the picture on the bill is of a red-billed tropicbird, which not only isn't the same as a white-tailed tropicbird, but it doesn't live on the island. It hardly ever even visits. Officials have apologized, but there's a catch. They aren't changing it. They say the bigger red-billed bird looks better on the yellow bill than the smaller, actually native orange bird.
There's no jail that can hold this guy
A 90-minute standoff at a New Jersey bank ended peacefully Thursday night. Police responded to an alarm at the PNC Bank in Montgomery Township about 8:40 p.m. They saw at least one person through the drawn blinds, but efforts to contact the person inside failed. So nearby apartment buildings were evacuated, and a SWAT team stormed the bank, where they apprehended a full-size cardboard figure.
Baby names
A financial boon for fascist legacy
For couples in Italy's Potenza province who are expecting but haven't picked out a name yet, the helpful people at the neo-Fascist Fiamma Tricolore not only have a suggestion, but an incentive. The party will pay $1,940 to couples who name their bouncing babies after World War II-era dictator Benito Mussolini if it's a boy, or his wife, Rachele, if it is a girl. Vicenzo Mancusi, the regional head of the party, said the names were chosen casually — "They're nice names" — and that the money should be used for baby necessities.
Compiled from Times wire services and other sources by staff writer Jim Webster, who can be reached at jwebster@sptimes.com.
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