Friday Snippets and Soundbites

Why hello, Friday!

We're not sure about you, but in Nashville, where we've been dealing with floods, it's been a pretty long week. We thank you for your prayers.

But let's get this weekend started right. What kind of crazy things have happened in the news this week? (And if today's edition isn't enough, check out "Snippets and Soundbites" on page 38 of this month's (and every month's) issue of ec.

Proud as a peacock
But the pride of the peacocks in question isn't actually what's causing the problem. It's the fact that the pair are strutting their stuff next to a busy road that has the police department in Fairfield Township in North Cincinnati concerned. More than a dozen motorists have called 911 in the last month to report seeing the birds during their commutes. No one really knows where they came from and the police fear the birds and all their finery could distract drivers and are worried the pair could wander into traffic and cause traffic accidents. A family on a nearby farm own a few peacocks, but they say the birds don't belong to them. Apparently, this is the Case of the Magically Appearing Peacocks. To read the whole story, go here.

Pets are good listeners
The Associated Press and Petside.com released a poll this week in which one-third of married women polled said their pets were better listeners than their husbands. Let that sink in for a minute. And the women aren't alone; eighteen percent of married men polled said their pets listened better than their wives. In the USA Today article about the poll, many of the people interviewed said they liked to talk things out with their pets, including stress about work and, yes, significant others. When it comes to which kind of pet is the best listener, though, the poll was clear: 25 percent of dog owners said their pets listened better than their spouses and only 14 percent of cat owners said their cats did the same. So, what about you? Do you like to talk things out with your pet? Why? Let us know in the comments!

Get rid of the evidence any way you can.
Apparently, a woman in Ohio thought that sounded like good advice. Lois Harvey, 40, of Columbus, Ohio, was in line at a bank in Columbus on Wednesday, wearing sunglasses and with a note demanding money from the teller at the ready. When she got to the front of the line and handed the teller her robbery note, she noticed a uniformed officer in line behind her. She panicked, grabbed the incriminating note, and ran. Of course, police nabbed her right outside the bank. As she was being captured, Harvey stuck the note in her mouth and attempted to swallow the evidence of her attempted robbery. It didn't work; she coughed up the note a few minutes later on the sidewalk. To read all about this strange robbery attempt, go here.