Quirky World: Vicar put his foot in it and lands a ban from wine bar

Britain: A vicar stopped from going in to a wine bar on Easter Sunday because he was wearing his trademark sandals hopes to return because they “do great mojitos”.

The Rev Andrew Dotchin said he had been to a beer festival to celebrate “that Christ had risen” after conducting six church services when he was turned away from The Wine Bar in Ipswich town centre for health and safety reasons.

Despite assuring the doorman to “trust me, I’m a vicar”, the 59-year-old real ale fan was forced to change his plan and go to Vodka Revolution to finish his night.

Toxic tale

Britain: Police have issued a warning to dog owners after cocktail sausages believed to be stuffed with toxic slug pellets were found at a popular walking spot.

Police in Hailsham, Sussex, have told dog walkers to be cautious after the contaminated meat was discovered by a member of the public. The sausages, which had been sliced open and filled with the blue pellets, were found on the Cuckoo Trail in Hailsham.

Off the rails

Britain: A rail company is investigating how one of its drivers took the wrong train out of a station.

The First Great Western (FGW) driver and his “pilotman” train manager joined a train at Banbury in Oxfordshire and thought they were heading for London.

But in fact the train was going the other way towards Reading and Didcot and, ultimately, Swansea.

Marathon effort

US: A New York man who recently won three marathons in three states in eight days says his winnings will go towards paying his infant son’s medical bills for a developmental congenital disorder.

Bryan Morseman, 29, of Bath in Steuben County, started his streak on March 14 when he won the Montgomery Marathon in Alabama, The Democrat and Chronicle of Rochester reported. The next morning he ran in the Tobacco Road Marathon in Cary, North Carolina, because it was on the way home and won that race.

Our marathon winner Bryan Morseman, who also ran a marathon yesterday. pic.twitter.com/aMWDxxOQzr

— Tobacco Rd Marathon (@TR_Marathon) March 15, 2015

A week later, he took first place in the Yeungling Shamrock Marathon in Virginia Beach. The three victories brought him $5,750 (€5,380) in winnings, all of which he will put towards nine-month-old Leeim’s treatments for spina bifida.

Final bloom

US: A University of Michigan horticulture expert has sawn down a towering plant that lived an unexpectedly long 80 years before completing its one-time-only flowering process.

Matthaei Botanical Gardens horticulture manager Mike Palmer used a handsaw to bring down the American agave. Mr Palmer said although he was sad to see the 20ft-plus stalk come down, “it was time”.

The agave has been in decline since flowering last year, a development Mr Palmer said is normal for the species. He said the agave produced “tons” of seeds. Now a university music professor plans to use a portion of the stalk to produce a flute. The agave that has called Ann Arbor home since 1934 started growing rapidly taller last spring, an indicator it was preparing to bloom.

Bust — again

US: An Ohio man has been charged with robbing a suburban Cleveland bank — the same bank he pleaded guilty to robbing in 1999 and for which he served a prison sentence of nearly six years.

Larry Hewitt, 47, of Garfield Heights, and his alleged accomplice, 33-year-old Marcus Wright of Cleveland, were indicted in federal court for robbing an Ohio Savings Bank branch last November of $6,240 (€5,844).

Hewitt and an accomplice was convicted of robbing the same Richmond Heights bank of $163,000 (€152,000) in 1999.