Vorld Vide News in Review

A wacky year ends with a wacky week -- here are some news items to end both with:

An Alaska Airlines jet had to return to the Seattle airport and make an emergency landing last Monday after a foot-long hole in its fuselage caused the plane to depressurize in midair. The side of the jet was hit just before takeoff by a piece of baggage loading equipment -- the operator was afraid he would be fired if he told anyone before the plane took off. This guy is clearly one of the folks in Seattle who ride the same bus everyday as our friend Mik.

And then there is the college student in Philadelphia who has filed a federal lawsuit after spending three weeks in jail because of the flour-filled condoms that airport security found in her luggage and wrongly insisted were filled with drugs. That's right, she filled condoms with flour and then took them on a trip! The police locked her up saying that their field test indicated the condoms contained opium and cocaine. Later tests showed it to be just flour. She told police that the condoms were "a silly stress-relief contraption." Well, the package (see above) does say all purpose.

Finally, Reuters News Service reports Peruvian officials found and confiscated 4,000 frogs, saving them from certain death in cocktail blenders. It seems that in the Andes, frog cocktails are popular because of their supposed aphrodisiac qualities. (Viagra are blue, right?)

Whatever you drink on New Year's Eve, be it green or otherwise, may it bring you nothing but luck and happiness in the new year! Jim & Rooty the Dog