[johngriffen]

I sometimes get REALLY DEPRESSED reviewing the news these days.
It's always about a global pandemic threatening life as we know it,
protests around the world, stupid politicians, natural disasters,
or some other really bad story.
ENOUGH IS ENOUGH

Welcome to The mobi weekly news magazine
IN OTHER NEWS
FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 9
What is it?
Here is your chance to become an "ACE REPORTER" for our weekly news magazine.
It is your job to fine weird, funny or "good feel" stories from around the world and share them with our readers in our weekly magazine

How do you play?
Just post a story that you have come across that made you smile, laugh, feel good...
BUT NOTHING DEPRESSING

EXAMPLE POST

​Naked sunbather chases wild boar through park after it steals his laptop bag

A naked sunbather was seen chasing wild boar through a park after it stole his laptop bag.
Amusing photographs from Germany show the man running after the animal to try and claim the plastic bag back.
But the cheeky boar and its two piglets appear to be too quick for the sunbather, who can't keep up with their speedy little trotters.
As the incident unfolds, groups of friends and family sat on the grass watch on and laugh.
Heads are seen turning in surprise and amusement in the hilarious photographs.
The incident happened at Teufelssee Lake - a bathing spot in the Grunwell Forest in Berlin, Germany.

Rules:
Each Edition of IN OTHER NEWS will be open for 7 days...
You can post as many stories as you like, but you will only get paid for One Story in any 24 hour period
So in other words, you can only earn WRZ$ once a day.
Each news day will start when I post announcing it
OR at:
9:00 AM CHICAGO TIME (UTC -5)
2:00 PM GMT (UTC -0)
on those days I space out and forget to post or can't due to Real Life
Stories may be accompanied with images - but No big images, please! 800x800 pixels wide maximum
Videos are allowed, but please keep them short, and post a short summary for those that don't like to click on videos
No Duplicate stories - Where a post has been edited resulting in duplicates, then the last one in time gets disallowed.
And please limit this to reasonably family friendly stories

Reward:
Each news story posted that I feel is acceptable (must be a real story, too few words or simply a headline are not considered acceptable) will earn you 50 WRZ$
If you post multiple stories on any given day, you will only earn 50 WRZ$ for the first story of the Day
All payments will be made at THE END of the weekly news cycle.
Special Bonus - Each week I will award "The Pulitzer Prize" for the best story of the week
The weekly winner of the "The Pulitzer Prize" will receive a 100 WRZ$ bonus
It's just my personal opinion, so my judgement is final

So help bring GOOD news to the members of mobi, and join our reporting team...

IN OTHER NEWS

[ozswede]

Family brawl that erupted over cheese-in-a-can ends in tasering and arrest

Petty family arguments can erupt over anything, even cheese.

However, it might be a good idea to ensure those arguments remain petty and don’t erupt into an all-out brawl.



A family in Louisiana didn’t heed that warning when West Monroe Police had to be called and dispatched to their residence after a call over a disturbance.

Once police officers had finally made contact with the family they soon became aware that what had started as a little quibble had turned violent.

One of the family members told the police officers that their 19-year-old sister Princess Ariana Williams had allegedly struck them several times.

Why all the outrage you ask? Well, according to KTVE NBC News, the argument began over a can of spray cheese.

Now, it isn’t clear how a can of aerated cheese ended in fisticuffs, but the information we do have is that it turned into quite the ruckus.



We're assuming here - so this is not fact at all and just our imagination - the sister copped a spray of cheese to the face.

Perhaps they wanted real cheese and not the feral processed stuff from a bottle.

If you’ve ever had spray cheese, then the second option definitely seems plausible.

Or maybe one of the sisters didn’t get her fair share of spray cheese, resulting in a cheese war.

Anyway, back to reality. According to police, one of the family members claimed that they were struck in the stomach several times by Williams.

The 19-year-old then allegedly chased the victim around the yard with a taser.

Yes, a taser. Over cheese in a can.



We're assuming the cheese involved must have been some real high-end stuff to warrant a taser.

Williams defended herself to the police and advised them that the family members weren’t telling the truth.

She claimed that she never struck the victim.

However, she was placed under arrest and taken to the Ouachita Correctional Center where she was charged with Simple Battery and Aggravated Assault.

The moral of the story - don’t mess with the family’s spray cheese.

But there must be something in the water down at West Monroe because this isn't the first food-related brawl they've had to break up.

Earlier this year a woman was arrested and charged with aggravated assault after an argument erupted over a crock-pot slow cooker, according to CBS42.

The victim had claimed that the alleged attacker had armed herself with a screwdriver and swung at them, but she too was arrested and taken to the Ouachita Correctional Center where she was charged.

Maybe she was trying to take the crock pot home for some spray cheese inspired slow cooking? We will never know.

[Fatima99]

Religious couples have better sex compared to non-believers



Experts claim that those who do not live together before marriage have a better time in bed as they have lower expectations. Spiritual couples also had more meaningful romps as they see each other less but casual intimacy with multiple partners lowers sexual satisfaction over time.

Researchers at Exeter University used data from 15,000 men and women aged between 18 and 59 from the third British Survey of Sexual Attitudes.

Study author Dr. Vegard Skirbekk said: "As religious individuals are less likely to engage in casual sex and more likely to limit sex to a relationship based on love, this can lead to lower expectations of sexual activity outside a formal union."

The findings, which have been published in the Journal of Sex Research, also found that more educated adults have less sex and lower satisfaction compared to those with fewer qualifications.

Hallelujah!

Loose tiger sightings reported to police in Louisiana

Authorities in Louisiana are investigating numerous reports of a tiger or other big cat on the loose in a city.

Several social media posts emerged Thursday night and early Friday morning reporting a tiger had been seen walking around Houma's downtown area, but no photo or video evidence of the animal emerged.

The Houma Police Department said it received multiple calls about a big cat.

"Anytime we receive multiple calls about something like this, we're obligated to perform a search," a department representative told WVUE-TV.

The representative said officers have not "laid eyes" on the animal themselves.

The Terrebonne Parish Sheriff's Office said it received one report of a large cat on the loose and deputies are currently speaking with local animal rescue groups about the sighting.

[PennySerenade]

Dog Thrown from Speeding Truck Survives and Finds a Forever Home: She's 'Really Happy Here'



Freya the dog, who survived being thrown from a truck traveling at 50 mph, has found happiness and learned to wag her tail again.

A loving family recently adopted Freya the terrier after learning of the canine's brutal abandonment in January. The 18-month-old dog's previous owner threw her out the window of a speeding vehicle and left her on the road in Kent, England.

Good Samaritans who witnessed the cruelty rushed to Freya's aid and took the pet to a nearby veterinarian's office, which reported the incident to the RSPCA, according to SWNS.

Freya arrived at the vet frightened, underweight, flea-ridden, and lucky to be alive.

"Witnesses described her being thrown with such force that she landed on the opposite side of the road, and the vehicle didn't stop or even slow down," Kirsten Ormerod, the RSPCA inspector who launched an investigation into the incident, told SWNS.



"Freya is incredibly lucky to survive after being hurled from the moving vehicle at such a high speed, and vets were incredibly concerned that she may have suffered internal bleeding so performed surgery immediately," she added.

Surgery revealed that Freya did not get seriously hurt during her violent abandonment.

After recovering at the vet, Freya found a home. A local couple, Gill and Ray, welcomed the healing pup with open arms.

"Freya is really happy here and is always wagging her tail," Gill, who looked into adopting Freya after hearing the pet's story, said.



"I lost my Jack Russell terrier in April, and we'd been thinking about getting another dog. I was so sad to hear about what had happened to Freya and thought we could give her a wonderful home," she added.

Freya's pet parents said the canine can be "a bit naughty," but they "love her just the way she is."

"We have a trainer coming to help us as she is very scared around men and finds it difficult meeting other dogs," Gill said. "But she's been through so much that we know it'll take her some time to understand that she's safe now."



Unfortunately, Freya's just one of the thousands of cruelty calls the RSPCA has responded to over the past year.

In 2021 alone, the animal welfare organization received 1,081,018 calls to its cruelty line. Of the calls, 38,087 were about abandoned dogs.

The nonprofit receives around 90,000 calls to its cruelty line each month and investigates 6,000 reports of deliberate animal cruelty. Yet this summer, the number of calls has risen to 134,000 a month.

For more information about the RSPCA, visit http://www.rspca.org.uk/stopcruelty.

[BigGlen]

International Sudoku Day was Founded in 2013



Sept. 9 (UPI) -- International Sudoku Day, an annual Sept. 9 celebration of the logic-based puzzle, was founded in 2013 by the World Puzzle Federation in 2013.

The holiday was first celebrated in 2013 by the World Puzzle Federation, described as "an association of legal bodies with an interest in puzzles," and the date Sept. 9, often stylized as 9/9, was chosen in honor of the 9x9 grid that makes up a sudoku puzzle.

While many grid-based number games existed in the past, the modern version of sudoku is believed to have been invented by Indiana man Howard Garns, who submitted his puzzles n the 1970s and 80s to Dell Magazines under the name "Number Place."

The game was given the the name sudoku when it was introduced in Japan in the 1980s, and it kept the name when Wayne Gould, a Hong Kong judge, convinced The Times of London to start publishing the puzzles in 1997.

Other holidays and observances for Sept. 9, 2022, include
Care Bears Share Your Care Day,
Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders Day,
International Buy a Priest a Beer Day,
National Dog Walker Appreciation Day,
National Steak Au Poivre Day,
National Teddy Bear Day,
Stand Up to Cancer Day,
Testers Day,
Wienerschnitzel Day and
Wonderful Weirdoes Day.

[goldie0608]

Man Discovers He Won $1M Lottery While Redeeming What He Thought Was a $600 Prize

Jose Flores Velasquez of Virginia visited his local lottery headquarters to claim the $600 he won — but he left with much more than he expected



Jose Flores Velasquez was happy to have won $600 after purchasing a lottery ticket at a local grocery store.

Little did he know he had won much, much more.

According to the Virginia Lottery, Velasquez recently visited the organization's headquarters in Woodbridge to redeem the winning $600 ticket but was surprised to learn from staffers that he had actually won the $1 million prize.

The life-changing moment only happened after Velasquez bought a "20X the Money" ticket at a Safeway while picking up soft drinks on his way home from work, per Virginia Lottery.

After claiming his winnings, Velasquez then had to choose whether he wanted $1 million spread out over the next 30 years, or a one-time payment. He chose the one-time cash option and took home $759,878 after taxes (which is $759,278 more than what he initially thought he had won, in case anyone is counting).

Velasquez told the Virginia Lottery that he would use his newfound cash to help his family and possibly start his own business.

"He is the second top prize winner in the latest version of 20X the Money (game #2128); that means one top prize remains unclaimed," Virginia Lottery said in a statement on their website.

"The game features prizes ranging from $10 all the way up to $1 million," they added. "The chances of winning the top prize are 1 in 1,754,400. The chances of winning any prize in this game are 1 in 3.65."

While fortune is undoubtedly on Velasquez's side, lottery winners often have a hard time holding on to their new cash.

One example is Jonathan Vargas, who won a $35.3 million Powerball prize in 2008. The then 19-year-old used his winnings to start a wrestling-themed sketch comedy show that ended after one season. While speaking to CBS News in 2016, he expressed some regret for his spending endeavors.

"If I had to do it all over again," he told the outlet, "I would recommend people just sit on it for a year — really decide what they want to do with it."

Swimmer finds wedding ring lost in channel 17 years earlier


Noel Nissen's wedding ring was found by a swimmer in British Columbia's Penticton Channel 17 years after he lost it in the water.

A swimmer in a British Columbia channel found a ring that hade been dropped into the water by a man 17 years earlier.

Penticton police released a statement seeking the owner of a ring found in the Penticton Channel by a local swimmer, and that the ring was engraved with the names Stephanie and Noel.

The statement came to the attention of Noel Nissen's father-in-law.

"My father-in-law reached out to me. He had seen an article on another news site and sent it my way saying, 'Is this yours?'" Nissen told CBC News.

Nissen said he had lost his wedding ring in the channel 17 years earlier!

https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2022/09/09 ... 662753308/

[Misstee]

Long overlooked, Oregon's Swastika Mountain may have a new name soon

August 29, 20225:30 AM ET

Dustin Jones



Mount Swastika is located in a remote part of the Umpqua National Forest outside Eugene, Ore. Named after a local cattle ranch in the early 1900s, the mountain is not well-known in the state, until recently. The mountain will likely be renamed Mount Halo, after a local tribal leader.
U.S. Geological Survey

Swastika Mountain, in Oregon's Umpqua National Forest, is in the process of being renamed after bearing the moniker for over a century. Due to its remote location, the mountain and its name have largely gone unnoticed until now.

Joyce McClain first heard of Swastika Mountain after reading about two hikers who were rescued from the peak in January. The 81-year-old couldn't believe that a mountain could still bear that name in 2022.

So, she decided to do something about it.

"People need to come forward and take action when they see something that isn't right or needs to be changed, because one person can make a difference, and this shows how that is so true," McClain told NPR.

She reached out to the Oregon Historical Society and its Oregon Geographic Names Board, filling out the paperwork to propose a name change. Kerry Tymchuk, executive secretary at the historical society, said McClain is the first person he knows of to submit a request for the mountain.

"It is not a very well-known mountain, and frankly, I didn't know there was one," Tymchuk told NPR. "It's in a national forest, not accessible to many people like Mount Hood or Mount St. Helen. It's not very well-known throughout the state; the vast majority of people likely never even knew it was there.



He said the mountain and a nearby town were named Swastika in the early 1900s — long before the Nazis — after a local ranch that bore the name and used the symbol to brand cattle. According to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, the symbol signified well-being in multiple ancient societies across the world, until it was co-opted by Adolf Hitler.

Despite its innocent origin story, Tymchuk said that it's important to consider what a geographic feature is called and what that name represents.

"What we name things, our features, reflects history, but also reflects values. And as history changes, so do values," he said. "And certainly, something bearing the name Swastika in 1903 is different than in 2022, when it's been associated with such an evil person and evil ideology."

The historical society and its board are considering renaming it Mount Halo, named after Chief Halito of the Yoncalla Kalapuya tribe. McClain, who had proposed that it be renamed to Umpqua Mountain, withdrew her suggestion, believing Halo to be a better fit for the mountain.

Board members will vote on the name change in a December meeting, after a 60-day comment period and gathering input from tribal authorities in the state. From there, the request will be submitted to the U.S. Board on Geographic Names for final approval.

https://www.npr.org/2022/08/29/1119688609/oregon-renaming-swastika-mountain-halo

[lush]

Chinese Pine Nut Harvester Drifts 200 Miles in Runaway Balloon
September 9, 2022

• It’s a dangerous job but someone has to do it. Even if you risk floating away.

Work accidents are always serious business. But they don’t usually send you drifting aimlessly through the skies for days on end.

Unless you happen to be a pine nut harvester from China. Then you run a very real risk of taking to the air uncontrollably.

That’s just what happened to one nut picker. The hydrogen balloon he used to get to the top of the pine trees got loose by accident.

The man — named Mr. Hu by China’s state broadcaster CCTV — ended up floating in the sky for two days. In that time, air currents pushed his balloon nearly 200 miles away from its starting point.

Luckily, there’s a happy end to this story. Rescuers managed to Mr. Hu back on terra firma and he survived his ordeal without serious injury.

He may think twice before getting back in a balloon, though.


“I don’t think we’re in Heilongjiang anymore.”


Losing Control

On Sunday, August 4, Mr. Hu was doing his job, harvesting pine nuts in the Heilongjiang province in northeastern China. Together with his colleague, he climbed into a balloon in order to get to the top of the tall pine trees.

To keep the balloon from floating away, the duo had tethered it to the trunk of the tree they were harvesting. But for reasons unknown, their lifeline suddenly came loose.

As the balloon began to rise uncontrollably, Hu’s colleague jumped out. But without the other man’s weight, the balloon only began to ascend faster.

Before Hu was able to leap out, the balloon was already up too high. He lost control of the balloon completely and drifted away helplessly.

As he gained altitude, the wind began to push him along. With no food in the balloon, Hu spent two hungry and cold days floating aimlessly across China.


Out of the Fire and Into a Tree

Although Hu probably felt so in the balloon’s gondola, he wasn’t alone. According to the Chinese state-run news outlet Global Times, his employer, local police, firefighters, and professional rescue workers put together a 500-strong team to get Hu down safely.

Fortunately for Hu, he had been carrying his mobile phone when the balloon took to the skies. We can’t imagine the connection was particularly good up in the air, but the rescuers were eventually able to contact Hu in his gondola.

Following their instructions, Hu successfully began to deflate the balloon. As the hydrogen slowly escaped, he drifted closer to the ground.

By the time he finally stopped, Hu had traveled 186 miles from where he started, ending up in the Fangzheng region of Heilongjiang. But his ordeal wasn’t over yet.

On his way down in the forested Fangzheng, Hu’s balloon collided with a tree. Although he was not firmly in place, he was still not back on solid ground.




‘I Almost Gave Up’

But being closer to the ground had the advantage that the rescuers could now pinpoint Hu’s location with his cell phone signal. The rescue effort was still no small feat due to low temperatures and hard rain, which turned the ground into a muddy swamp.

“It was raining heavily in the dark forest, which was really hard for us to see anything clearly,” said Meng Qingchun, a member of the rescue crew.

Finally, after spending 10 hours looking for him, the rescuers found Hu’s balloon and brought him down. Despite being cold and hungry, Hu was in good health with only some back pain from remaining on his feet for two days straight.

According to Chinese officials, Hu is now recovering in a hospital.

“I almost gave up. But thanks to the rescuers, otherwise, I wouldn’t be alive,” he told Global Times.


A Dangerous Job

Using balloons to harvest pine nuts is a fairly common practice in China. Hu’s strange journey wasn’t the first time one of the balloons has escaped, but he probably set a record for distance traveled in a runaway balloon.

In 2019, two men harvesting pine nuts in the Changbai Mountains near the border of China and North Korea lost control of their balloon. They ended up drifting for six miles before they landed safely — and got arrested for violating aviation regulations.

Another incident happened in 2017 when a nut picker went missing around the same region. We couldn’t confirm if he was ever found.

But believe it or not, the balloons actually make pine nut harvesting safer. Without them, the workers usually use spiked shoes to climb the 65-feet-tall pine trees, risking fatal falls.

The next time your sprinkle pine nuts on your salad, say “thank you” to Mr. Hu and his colleagues.

Grieving woman spending £3,500 travelling to scatter beloved hamster's ashes in Hawaii
Lisa Murray-Lang is planning to take the ashes of her hamster to Hawaii after creating the holiday destination as a cardboard cutout for her hamster to sit in during lockdown



A grieving woman is planning to spend £3,500 travelling 7,000 miles to Hawaii to spread the ashes of her beloved Spud - her pet hamster.

Lisa Murray-Lang, 46, was devastated by the death of the three-year-old small rodent in March this year.

During the 2020 lockdown, she created cardboard versions of famous locations - such as London, Paris, and Coronation Street for Spud to visit.

To mark his passing, she bought a ticket to Honolulu, Hawaii in October to spread his ashes on a “real holiday”.

Professional dog walker Lisa said: “We're going to take him down to the beach, play Beyonce ’s song I Was Here while we scatter his ashes and leave a message in the sand saying 'Spud visited'.



"It's the perfect send-off for him - he'll finally get to come along on a real holiday for once.

"He might have only stayed at home during his life but he managed to visit lots of places.

"The Hawaii set was always Spud's favourite - he loved the sand, especially given at the time it was winter and we were all surrounded by snow at the time."



Lisa started making sets for her pet as a lockdown hobby when the pandemic started six months after Spud joined the family.

She handcrafted every element using cardboard and dolls, with some sets even featuring hamster-themed artwork.

Other particularly impressive sets included the famous magical castle of Hogwarts - or "Hamwarts" - from the Harry Potter films, along with 10 Downing Street.

Lisa said one of the reasons she chose Hawaii to pay her final respects to Spud was because of how much he enjoyed visiting the model version.

She expected the cost of the trip to top £3,500, as it is a "final journey" - with other stops on the way to Kahanamoku Beach, Waikiki.

Another includes a stopover in the Dutch capital - nicknamed Hamsterdam - for the duration of her visit

.Lisa added: “The average age a hamster will live to is about two and a half years - so it's amazing really that he kept going for so long.

“He really gave us a reason to get out of bed in the morning, particularly during the lockdown when work stopped.

“He was a real part of the family.”

It comes as a psychic shared what she believed happens to pets when they die - including who greets them in heaven.

Nancy Mello, 40, learned about the afterlife from speaking to pets who have died.

Nancy told the Mirror : "When dogs pass away they have total peace - similar to what people have said they experience during a near-death experience.”

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/weird-new ... g-27940669

[johngriffen]

I sometimes get REALLY DEPRESSED reviewing the news these days.
It's always about a global pandemic threatening life as we know it,
protests around the world, stupid politicians, natural disasters,
or some other really bad story.
ENOUGH IS ENOUGH

Welcome to The mobi weekly news magazine
IN OTHER NEWS
SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 10
What is it?
Here is your chance to become an "ACE REPORTER" for our weekly news magazine.
It is your job to fine weird, funny or "good feel" stories from around the world and share them with our readers in our weekly magazine

How do you play?
Just post a story that you have come across that made you smile, laugh, feel good...
BUT NOTHING DEPRESSING

EXAMPLE POST

​Naked sunbather chases wild boar through park after it steals his laptop bag

A naked sunbather was seen chasing wild boar through a park after it stole his laptop bag.
Amusing photographs from Germany show the man running after the animal to try and claim the plastic bag back.
But the cheeky boar and its two piglets appear to be too quick for the sunbather, who can't keep up with their speedy little trotters.
As the incident unfolds, groups of friends and family sat on the grass watch on and laugh.
Heads are seen turning in surprise and amusement in the hilarious photographs.
The incident happened at Teufelssee Lake - a bathing spot in the Grunwell Forest in Berlin, Germany.

Rules:
Each Edition of IN OTHER NEWS will be open for 7 days...
You can post as many stories as you like, but you will only get paid for One Story in any 24 hour period
So in other words, you can only earn WRZ$ once a day.
Each news day will start when I post announcing it
OR at:
9:00 AM CHICAGO TIME (UTC -5)
2:00 PM GMT (UTC -0)
on those days I space out and forget to post or can't due to Real Life
Stories may be accompanied with images - but No big images, please! 800x800 pixels wide maximum
Videos are allowed, but please keep them short, and post a short summary for those that don't like to click on videos
No Duplicate stories - Where a post has been edited resulting in duplicates, then the last one in time gets disallowed.
And please limit this to reasonably family friendly stories

Reward:
Each news story posted that I feel is acceptable (must be a real story, too few words or simply a headline are not considered acceptable) will earn you 50 WRZ$
If you post multiple stories on any given day, you will only earn 50 WRZ$ for the first story of the Day
All payments will be made at THE END of the weekly news cycle.
Special Bonus - Each week I will award "The Pulitzer Prize" for the best story of the week
The weekly winner of the "The Pulitzer Prize" will receive a 100 WRZ$ bonus
It's just my personal opinion, so my judgement is final

So help bring GOOD news to the members of mobi, and join our reporting team...

IN OTHER NEWS

[ozswede]

Peppa Pig: Italian politician demands ban on children’s TV episode featuring lesbian polar bears

A senior member of a far-right Italian political party tipped to win general elections this month has appealed to state broadcaster Rai not to screen an episode of the globally popular children’s cartoon series Peppa Pig over the inclusion of a same-sex couple in its cast of characters.

The episode, called Families, was shown for the first time in the UK on Tuesday, and features two co-parenting lesbian polar bears. A character called Penny announces: “I live with my mummy and my other mummy. One mummy is a doctor and one mummy cooks spaghetti.” The family then sit down for a meal together.



Federico Mollicone, Brothers of Italy’s culture spokesperson, said broadcasting the episode in Italy would be “unacceptable”.

“We cannot accept gender indoctrination,” he told La Stampa. “Once again the politically correct has struck, at the expense of our children. Can’t children just be children?”

He added: “We ask Rai, which buys the rights to the Peppa Pig series in Italy with a fee from all Italians, not to broadcast the episode in question on any channel or web platform.”

It was the first time a LGBTQ+ couple had been featured in the 18-year history of Peppa Pig, which was created by the British animators Mark Baker and Neville Astley. The move followed an online petition demanding Peppa Pig include a same-sex couple.

It is unclear when the episode will be shown in Italy, but Brothers of Italy, whose leader, Giorgia Meloni, is poised to become the next prime minister, is against same-sex marriage and parenting.

Her party also contributed to preventing an anti-homophobia law, drafted by the gay Democratic party politician, Alessandro Zan, from being passed in parliament last year.

(That headline was not on my 2022 bingo card )

[Fatima99]

Queen's prank on American tourists who didn't recognise her that left people in stitches



Despite being one of the most recognisable people in the world, on occasion, the Queen could get away without being recognised. As Brits mourn Her Majesty, following her death yesterday at Balmoral castle, one of the monarch's hilarious jokes has gone viral.

Former protection officer Richard Griffin once appeared on Sky News where he recounted what happened when two American tourists failed to recognise the Queen after they met her walking on her Scottish estate. While he had been out with for a stroll with the Monarch on the grounds of Balmoral Castle in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, the pair came across two hikers.

At the time, she was dressed down in tweeds and wearing a headscarf - so the duo didn't recognise her, and assumed she was another visitor.

Recalling the event during the Queen's Platinum Jubilee celebrations, he said: "There were two hikers coming towards us and the Queen would always stop and say hello. It was two Americans on a walking holiday and it was clear they hadn't recognised her, which was fine."

"The American man asked her if she lived in the area to which she replied that she did indeed have a house nearby.

"She said that she lived in London but had a house just over the hill, and he asked how often she had been coming up here.

"She said she'd been coming up for more than 80 years and you could see the cogs were ticking. He said: 'Well if you've been coming up here for 80 years, you must have met the Queen?'

"As quick as a flash, she said 'Well I haven't but Dick here meets her regularly.' So the guy asked me what she was like.

"And because I was with her a long time, I could pull her leg, so I said she could be very cantankerous at times, but she's got a lovely sense of humour.

"Anyway the next thing I knew, this guy comes round, puts his arm around my shoulder, and before I could see what is happening, he gives his camera to the Queen and asks her to take a photo of us.

"Anyway, we swapped places, I took a photo of them with the Queen, we never let on and we waved goodbye. Then Her Majesty said to me that she'd love to be a fly on the wall when he shows these photos to his American friends and hopefully someone tells him who I am."

[goldie0608]

Mom Saves Son by Reportedly Fighting Off Tiger with Her Bare Hands

A 15-month-old reportedly sustained injuries to his head while his mother suffered wounds to her abdomen, including a punctured lung from the tiger's claws



A woman in India was hospitalized with serious injuries after fighting off a tiger that was trying to take her 15-month-old baby on Sunday.

Archana Choudhary was taking her son Raviraj outside of their hut to relieve himself when a tiger — believed to have come from the nearby Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh — attacked, according to the BBC and The Times of India.

The tiger pounced from the bushes and tried to sink its teeth into the baby's head, attempting to drag him away, per The Times. Choudhary immediately got between the animal and her son, and she screamed for help as she fought off the tiger using only her bare hands, the newspaper reports.

The incident lasted several minutes before nearby villagers came to her aid, and the tiger eventually retreated.

The mother suffered punctured lungs and wounds to her abdomen while the toddler had deep gashes on his head, according to The Times. A doctor told BBC Hindi that the child's wounds were not serious, but that Choudhary's were.

"She has been admitted to the hospital. She is out of danger and recovering. The baby is also doing fine," local official Sanjeev Shrivastava told AFP, according to CBS News.

The BBC also reported that Dr. Misthi Ruhela in the nearby city of Jabalpur said that both mother and child were being treated in the intensive care unit and had been given anti-rabies shots.

A local forest authority told reporters they hoped to locate and capture the tiger, and Shrivastava told BBC they were taking steps to ensure that more tigers wouldn't wander into villages. The Times also reports that villagers have been asked to stay indoors at night.

PEOPLE's requests for comment from Shrivastava, the Madhya Pradesh Police Department and the Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve were not immediately returned.

India is the home of more than 70 percent of the tigers in the world. In 1972, Parliament passed the Wildlife Protection Act and launched a government-sponsored effort to create tiger reserves.

Humans have been settling closer and closer to those reserves, resulting in an increase of attacks. The government reported in April a total of 108 deaths from tiger attacks in the country from 2019 to 2021.