Hard To Believe


1. When his .38-caliber revolver failed to fire at its intended victim during a holdup in Long Beach, California, robber James Elliot did something that can only inspire wonder: he peered down the barrel and tried the trigger again. Happily for most concerned, this time it worked.

2.  Laborer  Alexander Robinson of Mobile, Alabama, redefined the limits of tactlessness when he opened his eyes after surgery to restore his sight and said agreeably to his wife: 'Boy, you sure have got fat in four years.'

3.  The  chef  at  a  hotel  in Switzerland lost a finger in a meat cutting machine  and,  after  a  little  hopping  around,  submitted a claim to his insurance  company. The company, suspecting negligence, sent out one of its men to have a look for himself. He tried the machine out and lost a finger. The chef's claim was approved.

4.  Mourners  at  the  funeral of Anna Bochinsky in Moinesti, Rumania, were naturally  somewhat  taken aback when she abruptly leapt from her coffin as it  was  being  carried  to  the  grave.  Before  they  could react to this unexpected outburst, the woman bounded into the nearest road, where she was run over and killed by a passing car.

5.  An  American tourist in South America had the misfortune to be attacked by  killer  bees  as he stood on the bank of the Amazon. Seeking refuge, he leapt into the river - and was devoured by piranha fish.

6.  A  Malaysian monkey that had been trained to gather coconuts from trees demonstrated  a pressing need for a refresher course when it leapt onto the shoulders  of  a  passerby in Kuala Lumpur and tried to twist his head off. The passerby was treated at a local hospital for a sprained neck.

7.  In  Fort Lauderdale, Florida, a sixteen-year-old youth was charged with beating  up  his fifteen-year-old wife after the latter hid the caps to his toy pistol.

8.  A man who shoveled snow for an hour to clear a space for his car during a  blizzard  in Chicago returned with his vehicle to find a woman had taken the space. Understandably, he shot her dead.

9.  One of the criteria by which Miss Nude USA was chosen in 1979 was taste in clothing.

10.After  stopping  for  drinks  at an illegal bar, a Zimbabwean bus driver found  that  the 20 mental patients he was supposed to be transporting from Harare  to Bulawayo had escaped. Not wanting to admit his incompetence, the driver  went  to a nearby bus-stop and offered everyone in the queue a free ride.  He then delivered the passengers to the mental hospital, telling the staff that the patients were very excitable and prone to bizarre fantasies. The deception wasn't discovered for 3 days.

11.In  Minneapolis,  USA, 28 year old Derrick L Richardson has been charged with  third-degree  murder  of  his  much  loved  cousin, Ken E Richardson. According  to  local  police, Derrick had suggested to Ken that they play a game   of  Russian  Roulette,  but,  having  no  revolver,  instead  put  a semiautomatic  pistol  to his cousin's head. Apparently, he did not realize that one bullet always loads into the firing chamber of a semiautomatic.

12.Texan  prisons  have  banned  convicts  on  death row from having a last cigarette,  on  the  grounds  that  it is bad for their health. However, to compensate  for  this,  condemned  men  will instead be permitted to chew a stick of celery.

13.An  American  teenager  was  in  the  hospital yesterday recovering from serious  head  wounds received from an oncoming train. When asked about how he  received the injuries, the lad told police that he was simply trying to see how close he could get his head to a moving train before he was hit.

14.Thrash-happy  judges in Saudi Arabia have sentenced a Filipino man to 75 lashes  for  possession of alcohol - after he was caught with two chocolate liqueurs at an airport.

15.Following  the  initiatives  of the Afghan Taliban government, which has banned  kite-flying,  TV  watching  and  wearing  white socks, Iran is also cracking  down  on its more decadent citizens. Ayatollah Mohammed Yadzi has decreed that dog walking is to be made illegal, saying that taking dogs out onto  the  streets  was  'a  public insult,' as it was a blind imitation of Westerners.

16.A  mother  took  her daughter to the doctor and asked him to give her an examination  to  determine  the cause of her daughter's swollen abdomen. It only  took  the  doctor  about  2 seconds to say "Gimmee a break lady! Your daughter  is pregnant." The mother turned red with fury and she argued with the doctor that her daughter was a good girl and would never compromise her reputation  by  having  sex  with  a  boy.  The doctor faced the window and silently  watched the horizon. The mother became enraged an screamed, "Quit looking out the window! Aren't you paying attention to me?" "Yes, of course I  am paying attention ma'am. It's just that the last time this happened, a star appeared in the east, and three wise men came. I was hoping they would show up again and help me figure out who got your daughter pregnant".


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