ODDLY ENOUGH
ODDLY ENOUGH
English bar blocks cellphones, tries to get patrons talking
LONDON
A new English cocktail bar offers something truly old-fashioned on its menu: the chance to talk to real people instead of staring down your cellphone.
The Gin Tub in Brighton has won rave reviews in its first week of business by installing a cell signal blocker and placing throwback rotary phones at its tables.
They can be used to dial patrons at neighboring tables or the bar for another round.
The Gin Tub is reckoned to be the only British pub blocking cellphones by using a Faraday shield built into its ceiling, an exception in Britain’s 2006 Wireless Telegraphy Act that otherwise outlaws the use of signal blockers.
Proprietor Steve Tyler says: “Mobile phones have killed pubs. When you go out socially, you don’t need social media.”
Decades later, Grinch who stole Xmas lights sends $50
OWENDALE, Mich.
A Grinch who stole Christmas lights from a small Michigan town has repented decades later by sending $50.
The money and apology arrived in June in Owendale, near the tip of Michigan’s Thumb. The anonymous writer was remorseful over an incident that occurred while drinking in the 1960s.
The writer says the theft of lights “bothers me more and more. Please forgive me.”
Village Treasurer Manuel Thies believes the lights probably were on a large Christmas tree publicly displayed near a tavern.
The money is going into Owendale’s general fund but the letter, which was postmarked in Grand Rapids, will be framed and displayed.
Thies tells the Huron Daily Tribune that it will be a reminder that it’s never too late to do the right thing.
Dirty deed: Shoplifter bags 26 containers of laundry soap
NEW YORK
He didn’t make a clean getaway.
Authorities say a shoplifter tried to steal 26 containers of laundry detergent from a New York City supermarket.
The Staten Island Advance says the dirty deed occurred July 25.
Court documents say the man stuffed the detergent – valued at nearly $200 – into a black bag.
He tried to leave the store without paying – but police had a different destination in mind.
Associated Press