The astounding predictions of an octopus, the perils of “chexting” and the pain of getting around on planes were the laughing matters of last year.
News that a Sicilian man had stolen sweets and chewing gum so he could spend New Year’s Eve in jail to avoid his relatives seemed odd until another Italian man was stabbed by his son after a quarrel over tactics for a soccer videogame.
An ash cloud from an Iceland volcano caused travel chaos around Europe and spawned jokes across the Internet about the coincidence of the volcano’s eruption and the collapse of Icelandic banks owing billions to angry savers in Europe.
“The last wish of the Icelandic economy was to have its ashes scattered over Europe.”
Ash clouds and airport security woes failed to deter two women in Britain from trying to smuggle a dead relative wearing sunglasses onto a flight bound for Germany, but the agony of air travel sent others over the edge.
US flight attendant Steven Slater became an overnight sensation for issuing a string of profanities, grabbing a few beers and leaping down the emergency chute of his plane at JFK International Airport to head home following an altercation with a passenger.
An Internet “Don’t Touch My Junk” campaign encouraged US Thanksgiving travelers to refuse airport full body searches after a widely viewed YouTube video captured California man John Tyner telling a security official during a full body search: “If you touch my junk I’m going to have you arrested.”
The unfavorable economic climate also took its toll on the sex lives of US seniors, with a poll showing people in their 50s were having less sex.
However, lovelorn Chinese workers did not despair. Their government set up a matchmaking Web site to help thousands of busy, but lonely government workers find love at work.
“Are you still single and -bitter?” asked the pink-themed Web site (www.ywqq.gov.cn). “Look no further.”
A US study advised men seeking women to wear red, but British men risked a Valentine’s Day anticlimax by stocking up on anatomy-boosting underpants.
“The briefs mean that no man ever needs to feel inadequate again on the most passionate day of the social calendar,” Rob Faucherand of UK shop Debenhams said. “However, we can’t be held responsible for what happens once the pants come off.”
Infidelity by mobile phone text, Facebook and Twitter highlighted the dangers of “chexting” last year.
Golfer Tiger Woods and US TV celebrity Jesse James, who was married to Oscar-winning actress Sandra Bullock, were the top celebrities who saw their lives unravel amid revelations of cheating on their spouses, in part by arranging liaisons via text messages.
“It’s lipstick on the cellular — digital proof that becomes evidence you’ve been unfaithful,” said Peter Dedman of Predicto Mobile, the largest paid mobile community in the US.
Other words also took the English language by storm.
The Oxford English Dictionary welcomed “vuvuzela,” the plastic trumpet which wreaked havoc at the World Cup.
The incessant buzzing vuvuzelas blown by fans at World Cup soccer matches in South Africa in the summer drowned out almost all other sounds, caused mayhem with referees and broadcasters, became an iPhone app, a sensation on YouTube and were finally banned by European soccer’s governing body UEFA.
Paul, the oracle octopus who shot to fame for his uncanny ability to predict the results of Germany’s World Cup campaign, enjoyed brief fame before dying in October after disappointing his hosts by correctly predicting they would lose their semi-final match to eventual World Cup champions Spain.
Spaniards asked for Paul’s transfer to Spain from his German home, while some annoyed Germany fans wanted to grill him.
World leaders also waded into the world of wackiness.
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi drove past the Israeli-built wall in the West Bank, but failed to notice it and caused offense when he said it was “better to like beautiful girls than to be gay.”
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez told mothers they could cure insomnia in their children by making them watch his lengthy televised speeches and took up Twitter, urging Cuba’s Fidel Castro and Bolivian President Evo Morales to join in.
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said he sleeps only when President Dmitry Medvedev is awake.
Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono released his third album of pop songs and European Council President Herman Van Rompuy launched an anthology of Japanese-style Haiku poetry.
One reads:
“In a nearby ditch,
Toads mating passionately,
Inaugurate spring.”
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
‘POLITICAL EARTHQUAKE’: Leo Varadkar said he was ‘no longer the best person’ to lead the nation and was stepping down for political, as well as personal, reasons Leo Varadkar on Wednesday announced that he was stepping down as Ireland’s prime minister and leader of the Fine Gael party in the governing coalition, citing “personal and political” reasons. Pundits called the surprise move, just 10 weeks before Ireland holds European Parliament and local elections, a “political earthquake.” A general election has to be held within a year. Irish Deputy Prime Minister Micheal Martin, leader of Fianna Fail, the main coalition partner, said Varadkar’s announcement was “unexpected,” but added that he expected the government to run its full term. An emotional Varadkar, who is in his second stint as prime minister and at
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia