oddly enough

oddly enough

Vermont bistro scolded for removing its bacon sign

WINOOSKI, Vt.

A Vermont restaurant that removed a bacon advertisement called insensitive to vegans and Muslims is being criticized for doing so.

Sneakers Bistro and Cafe in Winooski last week took down a sign saying “Yield for Sneakers Bacon” after comments were posted in an online community forum by “a vegan and a member of a Muslim household.” Vegans and Muslims don’t eat pork.

Sneakers’ menu features items including a breakfast sandwich with homemade turkey bacon. Owner Marc Dysinger says the sign was meant to be fun and to show the restaurant cares about Winooski, a city of 7,000 residents with many Muslim families.

The Burlington Free Press reports people have criticized the restaurant for what they feel was an unnecessary move. The restaurant has hired a public-relations firm to help it deal with the bad publicity.

Hunters snag 1,000-pound alligator, an Alabama record

CAMDEN, Ala.

A family battled a 1,000-pound alligator for more than five hours, putting several large hooks into the beast before firing a fatal shotgun blast into the gator’s head.

The result? The catch of a lifetime and a state record in Alabama.

The 15-foot gator was hooked in a creek about 80 miles west of Montgomery recently, Al.com reported. The first attempt to weigh the gator destroyed a winch that state biologists typically use, so they had a backhoe lift it. It weighed 1,011.5 pounds.

It was caught by Mandy and John Stokes, brother-in-law Kevin Jenkins and his children, 16-year-old Savannah and 14-year-old Parker.

“We give all the glory to God. Ten men couldn’t have done what we did,” John Stokes said.

The gator didn’t go down without a fight. After the family got some large hooks into the gator, Mandy Stokes aimed her 20-gauge shotgun at the “sweet spot” behind the alligator’s eyes. That’s where she was told to aim during a mandatory training class for Alabama gator hunters.

She pulled the trigger, but the gator’s head was too far beneath the water’s surface.

“All it did was make this gator mad,” Mandy Stokes told Al.com. “Fear had taken hold at this point.”

The gator surged forward and towed the 17-foot boat and its five passengers across the creek at a startling speed, the hunters said. The towing continued until the boat crashed into a tree stump in the creek, sending the crew spilling on top of one another.

Eventually, Mandy Stokes got another shot.

“When I pulled the trigger this time, water just exploded on all of us,” she said.

This time, she killed the alligator.

The family planned to send the gator to a taxidermy shop. Beyond that, they’re not sure what they’re going to do with it.

Associated Press