Miscellaneous

It’s just like that Mean Joe Green commercial, but with a decidedly worse ending.

A shirtless [soccer star David] Beckham approached the boys February 20, after the Galaxy’s exhibition loss to Japan’s Gamba Osaka in the Pan-Pacific Championship, and reached over a sign with his right hand and gave away his white jersey.

Eric and Yoshika Kerr said it was their 10-year-old son that held a sign all game and eventually lured Beckham over. The jersey, they say, was intended for their son because the soccer star pointed to him.

Wilfred and Yoshika Ho said their 9-year-old son had possession first and that a police officer stepped in during a scrum for the jersey and resolved the issue by handing it to their son.

“My son got the shirt, their kid started trying to pry it away,” said Wilfred Ho, who considers a front-page photo in Thursday’s edition of The Honolulu Advertiser proof.

Anyone who has lived on Chicago’s north side know the ruthlessness of the tow truck drivers there. Seriously, if you park somewhere you are not supposed to you can walk five feet away, realize you forgot something in the car, turn around and it will already be gone. Looks like Dallas is just as bad:

Melissa Jio left her 7-year-old son in the car for just a minute as she ran upstairs to her apartment Monday night, she said. He was splayed across the back seat asleep.

As she descended the stairs, she realized her silver four-door Saturn was no longer there.

“My baby is gone! I’ve lost my baby!” she screamed, thinking a thief had stolen the car with her son in it.

But it wasn’t stolen; it had been towed.

A few minutes later – as police were investigating what they thought could be a kidnapping and as Ms. Jio remained in hysterics – another strange thing happened. The tow truck driver returned to the parking lot with the car and the still-sleeping boy, unhooked his load in a hurry and sped away.

It’s a real life Lassie!

A barking dog helped save an infant Monday evening by alerting his mother that the child was floating in a pool, according to an incident report.

The child, 10-month-old Lios Kelaidis of Ontario, was breathing when pulled from the pool, but Stuart Fire Rescue paramedics transported him to Martin Memorial North as a precaution, according to the report.

Hospital officials said Lios was in good condition Tuesday morning, and he has since been released from the hospital.

After federal prison officials received cards and emails from around the nation pleading to allow Jason Yaeger, who is in prison on meth-related charges, to visit his dying daughter, Jayci, they finally agreed. Jayci is suffering from terminal brain cancer.

On Wednesday afternoon, prison guards drove Jason Yaeger to a Lincoln hospice, where he spent several hours at her bedside. No one else was allowed in the room except Jason Yaeger, Jayci and the escorts.

Sources said Yaeger did leave the girl’s side to consult with hospice counselors and get some direction on how to speak with the girl about what she was going through.

Prior to Wednesday, the prison warden had allowed Jason Yaeger three visits to his daughter, but had denied requests for a longer furlough or an early transfer to a halfway house in Council Bluffs, Iowa. The warden told Yaeger it was not viewed as an extraordinary circumstance.

The python stole the dingo that stole my baby! Call us pussies, but we don’t think we’re tough enough to live in Brisbane, Australia, where “scrub pythons” slither around waiting to slurp down a tasty terrier or two. The field mice problem in our house is about as close to nature as we want to get. Although having a few snakes around would help take care of that… hmmm, maybe we need to rethink.

A 16-foot python stalked a family dog for days before swallowing the pet whole in front of horrified children in the Australian tropics, animal experts said Wednesday.

The boy and girl, aged 5 and 7, watched as the scrub python devoured their silky terrier-Chihuahua crossbreed Monday at their home near Kuranda in Queensland state.

Stuart Douglas, owner of the Australian Venom Zoo in Kuranda, said scrub pythons typically eat wild animals such as wallabies, a smaller relative of the kangaroo, but sometimes turn to pets in urban areas.

“It actively stalked the dog for a number of days,” Douglas said.

“The family that owned the dog had actually seen it in the dog’s bed, which was a sign it was out to get it,” he added.

We have mixed feelings about the Boy Scouts of America here at Minor Topics. Some of us think they are a harmless organization that gives kids some camaraderie and a chance to hone their s’mores making skills. While others think that, while one could argue that they have a legal right to require Christian allegiance and discriminate against homosexuals under the umbrella of “religious exemption”, they should then forfeit collecting any taxpayer funds and stop using public schools as promotional venues. Texas Governor Rick Perry certainly falls into the former camp, and he thinks the Boy Scouts are the bees knees. In fact, he thinks they are so great he wrote a book about them.

In his new book, Texas Gov. Rick Perry uses the Boy Scouts to draw a battle line in a “culture war,” defending them against the American Civil Liberties Union and what he sees as a moral struggle for the country’s future.

He was to be in New York today to launch a tour promoting On My Honor: Why the American Values of the Boy Scouts Are Worth Fighting For.

The book extols the virtues of the Boy Scouts and its impact on a young boy growing up in rural Paint Creek, Texas. “Life revolved around school, church, and – for most boys – the Boy Scouts,” wrote Mr. Perry, who eventually became an Eagle Scout.

It traces a 30-year history of litigation involving the Scouts – most of which they won – and Mr. Perry, a Republican, targets the ACLU as the primary force behind a leftist push to accept homosexuality and challenge Scouting’s duty to God.