Oddly enough

Oddly enough

Colorful tiles turn former firetruck into artwork

SAN ANGELO, Texas

Some new art in a West Texas park has wheels and previously was used to help save lives.

Organizers say more than two dozen people took turns placing thousands of colorful tiles on a retired firetruck to create artwork for a San Angelo park dedicated to emergency responders.

The San Angelo Standard-Times reports the mosaic firetruck was unveiled Wednesday at Firefighter’s Memorial City Park. Some San Angelo city workers and current firefighters were part of the project affiliated with the group Art in Uncommon Places.

The vehicle was driven by Fire Chief Alvin “Tom” Biggs of the San Angelo Fire Department from 1941 to 1964. The donated truck carries a plaque dedicated to Biggs.

Alaska pot conference call interrupted by toilet

JUNEAU, Alaska

Everyone’s had a bad conference call experience when someone who dialed in puts the call on hold, and loud hold music makes it impossible for the call to continue.

The Alaska Marijuana Control Board had a bit of that and a sound of a different sort during its recent meeting.

Someone who had dialed in to the meeting in Juneau flushed a toilet.

About 40 people were on the line, including enforcement officer James Hoelscher from Anchorage.

During his report, muffled noises were heard in the background and then the very distinct sound of a toilet flushing. Board member Mark Springer stopped the meeting and admonished the unknown flusher as being rude.

Springer asked whoever was walking around with a cellphone in their pocket, and who had flushed the toilet, to mute their phone.

Yellow car loathed by village visitors vandalized

LONDON

Vandals have struck a banana yellow car blamed for ruining visitors’ photos of a famous English village.

“Move,” someone scratched into the hood of Peter Maddox’s car in the Cotswolds village of Bibury as part of a January rampage that caused around $8,000 in damages.

For the past three years, the 84-year-old widower has parked his Vauxhall Corsa outside his retirement cottage on Arlington Row in Bibury. The grey-stone 14th century homes are among the oldest inhabited dwellings in Britain and feature in the artwork of British passports.

With locals’ public backing, the retired dentist says he won’t have his style dictated by tourists. Told by mechanics that his car was probably an insurance write-off, Maddox says he plans to buy a replacement — in lime green.

Associated Press