Odds & Ends

Man seeks compensation for gay pig

A Bulgarian farmer has gone to court demanding substantial damages after claiming the prize-winning pedigree pig he bought from a breeder was homosexual. Gale Dobrev, 43, from Bulgaria told the court the pig was only interested other male pigs and brought pictures of the pig and the testimony of fellow farmers as evidence of the 220-pound boar’s sexual orientation. He also claimed that when other farmers heard about the pig it became impossible to sell – and in the end he turned the animal into sausages. The breeder who sold the pig claimed the farmer acted hastily by turning the boar into sausage and said that had the farmer waited for the pig to sexually mature it would have mated with female pigs.

Prepare for the iGlock

State wildlife officials in Texas are up in arms about a Web site that may soon let hunters shoot at animals on a ranch. Controversial Web site http://www.live-shot.com already offers target practice with a .22 caliber rifle and could soon let hunters shoot at deer, antelope and wild pigs, said John Underwood, the site’s creator. Texas officials are not sure what to make of Underwood’s Web site, but may tweak existing laws to ensure that Internet hunting doesn’t get out of hand. Mike Berger, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department director, said this was the first site of its type he had seen and current state laws don’t cover provisions for remote hunting. Underwood said Internet hunting could be popular with disabled hunters unable to get out in the woods or distant hunters unable to afford a trip to Texas. Berger has proposed a rule that will come up for public discussion in January that anyone hunting animals covered by state law must be physically on site when they shoot.

Go Speed Racer

A young male lost his driver’s license after speeding past a camera 19 times in one night. The teenager swapped his car’s license plate with a fake one and raced past the camera, but the 19-year-old and his three friends were snapped in various poses, usually hanging out of the windows making obscene gestures, in the belief that police wouldn’t be able to trace them, but the police in Bern, Switzerland circulated the images to their patrol units and the men were stopped on their way home.

Well, it’s certainly unusual

The principal at an Alaskan school was fired following an incident where he had a teacher whip him in front of two students. Steve Unfreid, principal of Matanuska Christian School, said Jesus inspired his unusual tactic. He asked teacher Joe Brost to whip him in front of two male students in the school’s basement after the boys were caught kissing girls in the locker room for the second time in a week. He used this as an alternative to expulsion and told them their behavior had to stop and that because he let the environment get too lax he had to share in the punishment and told Borst to stop only when the students acknowledged their mistake. The school’s board of directors unanimously decided to fire Unfreid. Brost later resigned.

It’s about time

A group is offering music fans the chance to trade in copies of Ashlee Simpson’s album for one of – what they call – higher entertainment quality. Fans can bring the CD to a New York venue and exchange it for albums by Elvis Costello, The Ramones, Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin and others. The group calls itself Horrified Observers of Pedestrian Entertainment and targeted Paris Hilton during a Los Angeles event where she signed copies of her book. The members carried signs with slogans such as “Why are You Famous” and “You Can’t Buy Brain Cells.”