Quirky World: Drunk and bored... so he called 911 over 100 times

Authorities say a Michigan man confessed he was drunk and bored when he called 911 more than 100 times in about a month.

The 25-year-old from the Grand Traverse County community of Kingsley in northern Michigan was arrested at his mobile home. Sheriff’s deputies say they found about a half-dozen phones used to call 911 since January and a hand-held police scanner.

Captain Randy Fewless says the man didn’t say anything until his last call, but started “upping the ante” by “labouring his breathing” in successive calls when the police didn’t come to his home.

On the last call, investigators say the man said he’d been hurt and needed help.

Love is in the jar

ENGLAND:

Damien Hirst may be best known for work featuring dead animals but the controversial artist has shown his romantic side for his latest exhibition.

The 49-year-old has created a new collection of original prints and sculptures in time for Valentine’s Day, including Love Struck, a pig’s heart pierced by a crossbow bolt suspended in a sweet jar.

The work, which has a starting price of £12,000 (€16,000), is part of Hirst’s Love exhibition at Paul Stolper Gallery in Holborn, central London.

It includes two love heart-shaped sculptures, entitled LOVE YU 4 EVA and a series of 14 prints, each featuring a butterfly inside a love heart.

Two legs best

USA:

A speedy, two-legged male Chihuahua without a tag, microchip or home was picked up in Southern California this week.

Alerted to a report of an injured dog, San Bernardino County Animal Care and Control officers rounded up a six-year-old Chihuahua in Highland, about 100km east of Los Angeles.

The dog was actually uninjured. Unlike most dogs missing two legs, this dog is missing most of his right front and rear left legs. But he runs naturally as if he’s been running that way his whole life.

Special delivery

USA:

Maxxzandra Ford said she realised during delivery that she was giving birth to an unusually large baby, but had no idea her son Avery was 14.1lb.

It was a double surprise for the Florida mom who didn’t even realise she was pregnant until her third trimester.

Ford said her “feet never swelled, never was really that tired, my back didn’t hurt so obviously I didn’t think anything of it.”

But Ford said she was rapidly gaining weight last autumn. That’s when doctors confirmed she was more than eight months pregnant. Ford, who also has a one-year-old son and five-year-old daughter, initially thought she was having twins.

After 18 hours of labour, Ford naturally delivered Avery at St Joseph’s Women’s Hospital in Tampa. Hospital officials say Avery is the heaviest born at the hospital, and one of the largest-ever born in the state.

Straw homes

ENGLAND:

In the famous nursery rhyme, one of the three little pigs is derided for building his house from straw — presenting the big bad wolf with an easy meal.

But maybe the pig was on to something, as the first straw houses to be offered on the open market go on sale in England.

The team behind the project insist that straw houses could help meet housing demand in the UK sustainably — and are safe from huffing and puffing.

The homes are the result of an engineering research project led by the University of Bath and specialist architectural firm Modcell.

The seven houses, on a street of traditional brick-built homes in Shirehampton, Bristol, are clad in brick to fit in with the surroundings.