Irony

Editor's note: Here is another addition to my ongoing, semi-regular "Weird and Wacky (and often humorous) News File." This article kinda sounds like a Seinfeld episode, or maybe the makings of a really bad Bond movie.

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Athens taxi driver reports book missing

Athens Banner-Herald. Published Monday, June 27, 2011

An Athens taxi cab driver reported his book about the Constitution stolen after a man climbed into the driver's seat of his cab as it sat outside of College Park Lakeside Apartments about 4:55 a.m. Sunday, according to a police report.

The driver had been standing outside the cab, arguing with two passengers about how much money they owed when a 6-foot-tall man with a Russian accent climbed into the driver's seat and told the passengers still in the cab that they did not have to pay their bill and that they could leave, police said.

The man then began to jostle the keys and attempt to drive the cab away, the passengers told police. The passengers stopped the man, took the keys from him and returned the keys to the driver. Everyone then paid the driver what they owed, police said.

When the driver returned to the cab, he noticed that his book about the U.S. Constitution was missing. He then reported it stolen to police, who were unable to determine if the man with the Russian accent or one of the passengers was responsible, according to the report.

[In case you're interested, you can read other similar posts here, here, here, here, and here. ~cn]

Summer Time

Summer. It's a time for slower schedules, long walks on a quiet country road, and being able to hit the snooze button more often. It means watching the acrobatic flower dance of a million honey bees and hummingbirds by day, and marveling at the rhythmic lightning bug light show by night. It means listening to the harmonic blends of the neighborhood songbirds and playing children, and also enjoying the nightly orchestra of crickets, whippoorwills, and bullfrogs. It means being thankful for a soft summer breeze to stir the hot sticky air, and occasionally getting soaked by an unexpected pop-up rain shower. It means sunburns and mosquito bites and bee stings and poison ivy, but it also means the cool soothing goodness of aloe and calamine lotion. It means cannonball splashes and swan dives, blackberry picking and tadpole catching, and watermelon eating and corn shucking. It means impromptu fishing trips at a local pond, smelling the pungent sweetness of newly-mowed grass, and enjoying a fresh-off-the-vine tomato sandwich.

It's also a time for lazing on a creaking porch swing, listening to our kids playing music and singing family favorites like Johnny Cash, The Avett Brothers, and songs written by their great-grandfather. It's a time for cherishing family and time spent together. It's a time for remembering the past, savoring the present, and daydreaming about the future.

Summer. I hope it never ends.

Perfection