QUIRKY WORLD ... Naughty step for TV’s bondage for beginners

ENGLAND: ITV could be disciplined after communications watchdog Ofcom launched an investigation into This Morning’s Fifty Shades Of Grey-inspired report on “bondage for beginners”.

The show, presented by Phillip Schofield and Christine Bleakley, featured an interview with a ‘sex expert’ about a range of sex toys, including an eye mask, a leash and collar, and a bodywand.

A spokesman for Ofcom said it received 120 complaints about the issue and an investigation had opened into whether the item was suitable for broadcast before the watershed.

Live lambing

ENGLAND: If you want to experience the round-the-clock working that comes with lambing time, one farm and visitor attraction has been using Twitter to keep everyone informed about the life-and-death dramas of the latest arrivals.

Cute as it gets - new born lambs at Cannon Hall, Barnsley pic.twitter.com/4HXmQvdZMU

— Dave Higgens (@DaveHiggensPA) March 2, 2015

Cannon Hall Farm, near Barnsley, has been welcoming lambs at the rate of around 20 a day over the past few days and one of the brothers who runs it, Robert Nicholson, has been letting armchair farmers share in the hard work.

Downton downpayment

USA: A US politician has repaid  the government $40,000 (€35,700) from his personal account for redecorating his congressional office in the style of the TV show Downton Abbey, according to financial records reviewed by the Associated Press.

Illinois representative Aaron Schock paid $35,000 earlier this month to the owner of the decorating firm, Euro Trash, and $5,000 more on Thursday, the records showed.

A spokesman for Schock, 33, a rising star in the Republican Party, said his payments made good on an earlier promise to personally shoulder the costs of the office renovation.

Together ‘til the end

USA: A US couple died holding hands at the end of a marriage lasting 67 years.

Floyd and Violet Hartwig’s daughter, Donna Scharton, said that once the family sensed the couple were close to death, they pushed their two hospice beds together, gently joining their hands.

Floyd went first, followed by Violet five hours later, at their home in central California, as they had wished.

Scharton said her parents’ romance sparked at a dance hall when Floyd, a decorated navy sailor, was home on leave. They went on to have three children, four grandchildren, and 10 greatgrandchildren.

Scharton said people often commented on her parents’ connection.

Cynthia Letson said that once her grandfather passed, the family told her grandmother that she could go too.

Drive-by egging

USA: Seattle police say a woman was knocked unconscious when she was pelted by an egg in a so-called drive-by egging.

The egg hit the woman right behind the ear and knocked her out, Det Patrick Michaud said. Her friends caught her before she fell to the ground and drove her to a local hospital.

Police say the woman and her friends were standing outside a bar when someone in a passing truck threw a volley of eggs at them. An employee of the bar was also hit in the egging.

Michaud said that he did not know the woman’s condition.

Not weed

USA: A man in Lincoln, Nebraska, has been cited for possessing pot inside a container that had been slapped with a label reading: “Not Weed.”

The Lincoln Journal Star reports that Lancaster County deputies stopped the man’s vehicle around 9pm on Saturday. Officers found the during a search of his car, and the driver acknowledged that the pot belonged to him.

He was arrested on suspicion of drunken driving and cited for having less than an ounce of marijuana.

Mole men

CANADA: Two men built a mysterious tunnel discovered near a Pan Am Games venue in Toronto and there was no criminal intent, police said yesterday.

Constable Victor Kwong said tips from the public helped them identify and interview two men responsible for building the underground chamber, adding it is been determined there was never any danger to public safety.

He said the pair told investigators they built the tunnel plastic sour cream container for “personal reasons” and that their explanation has been verified and the case closed with no charges.

Kwong said police are not releasing the men’s names, or any further details since the case is not a criminal investigation, but he said there is no connection to York University, which is near the site where the tunnel was found, or the Pan Am Games.

He says the men are not believed to be survivalists, adding they just “wanted to dig a tunnel”.

Toronto police announced the discovery of the tunnel on February 24.

The discovery of the “mystery tunnel” caused social media buzz with theories that ranged from zombie hideouts to affordable housing.