I managed to find a few notable headlines from an otherwise quiet first weekend of 2024:

1) That missing part that blew out the door of the Alaska Airlines Boeing 737, forcing it to make an emergency landing in Portland, Oregon on Friday, has been found in the yard of “a teacher called Bob.” [BBC News, Jan. 7, 2024.] Glad it didn’t fly through a window of Bob’s house (or anyone else’s). Bob sounds like a modest guy who doesn’t seek publicity; but I do hope the Boeing folks, or the people at Alaska Airlines, find a way to show their appreciation. After all, he could simply have thrown that piece of junk into the trash. Good job, Bob from Portland . . . whoever you are.

So the next time you book a flight and you’re asked if you’d accept the “honor” of being seated next to the emergency exit . . . Yeah, you might think very carefully before you answer.

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2) Noted actress Jodie Foster, now a lovely aged 61, finds a lot of Gen-Z actors “really annoying” because of their lack of any sort of work ethic. Well, imagine that — 20-somethings being annoying. Who woulda thunk it?

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3) “Hundreds of lizards seized in Australia police bust.” [Hannah Ritchie, BBC News, Jan. 7, 2024.] Contrary to the wording of the headline, the lizards were not read their rights and hauled off to jail. Rather, police in Sydney, Australia have broken up a criminal syndicate planning to export — illegally — hundreds of native reptiles from Australia to Hong Kong. The creepy-crawlies, which included 257 lizards and three snakes, apparently had a market value of A$1.2 Million (US$805,000), and are much sought-after in Hong Kong, which does a huge trade in all sorts of exotic animals. So, in addition to the whole “we-now-belong-to-China” thing, I have yet another reason not to travel to Hong Kong: not a big fan of waking up to find someone’s alligator bag mysteriously inching across the foot of my bed. But happily, the contraband critters have now been treated for some health issues apparently resulting from neglect while in captivity, and returned to the wild where they may slither back into the primal ooze from which they originated and live happily into the third millennium.

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4) And finally, on a more adorable note (unless you’re like my relative who once jumped up onto the dining room table when told there was a little field mouse in the house):

A postman and wildlife photographer in one of those unpronounceable locations in Wales, one Rodney Holbrook, was puzzled when he began noticing each day that things he had left lying around on his workbench the night before had mysteriously been tidied up. So he set up a night vision camera, and what he discovered in the morning was just about the cutest thing I’ve ever seen: a mouse, apparently living with a severe case of OCD, picking up one item at a time and placing it in a box that was sitting on the workbench . . . just scurrying tirelessly back and forth, back and forth, until the job was done. Perhaps it was influenced by too many viewings of the cartoon version of Cinderella? I don’t know the answer, but I wouldn’t mind finding a housekeeper with that kind of energy. (Check out the video on the link below.)

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-67902966

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And that, good readers, is my brief report for today. I wish every day could be as devoid of bad news . . . but I’m sure there will be plenty of that tomorrow.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
1/9/24