oddly enough

oddly enough

National Christmas Tree near White House has died

WASHINGTON

Federal officials say the National Christmas Tree planted near the White House a year ago has died and has been removed.

The National Park Service says the Colorado blue spruce died of “transplant shock.” It came from a tree farm in New Jersey last year and was planted on the Ellipse just south of the White House in March 2011.

The tree replaced a tree that had stood on the Ellipse since 1978 but was destroyed by high winds in February 2011.

Workers removed the dead tree Saturday.

The National Park Service says it already has identified a Colorado blue spruce to replace the tree and will plant the new National Christmas Tree in October, just in time to be decorated for the holiday.

Another testicle ticket written in South Carolina

SPARTANBURG, S.C.

For the second time in a year, a motorist has been ticketed in South Carolina for displaying a replica of testicles on a vehicle.

A Spartanburg County sheriff’s deputy stopped a truck Sunday evening after noticing the “anatomically correct” display on the rear bumper.

The incident report says the driver removed the display after being stopped, but he was arrested for driving without a license.

He also was given a warning ticket for having an obscene display.

Last July, a Berkeley County woman was ticketed for having a similar display on the back of her truck.

That case is to go to trial in municipal court in the town of Bonneau.

That trial has been delayed three times, and no new trial date has been set.

NATO video includes errors about city, president

CHICAGO

It seems NATO may also stand for Not All That Observant.

A video posted on the North Atlantic Treaty Organization website ahead of its upcoming summit in Chicago got a few things wrong: identifying Chicago as Illinois’ capital, identifying the city as the place President Barack Obama grew up and identifying the wrong man as the founder of the Chicago Tribune.

But by Friday, NATO showed it could also stand for Not About To Offend after it scrubbed those mistakes from the video.

Springfield is Illinois’ capital. Obama spent his childhood in Hawaii and Indonesia and moved to Chicago later. And Col. Robert McCormick, for whom the host convention center is named, did not found the Tribune, as the video first stated.

Associated Press