StrangeSights

UK based TV channel UKTVGold recently polled people on what they thought were the most absurd laws both in the UK and overseas. The UK shortlist included a law making it treason to place a postage stamp upside down, a law from Liverpool which says only a clerk in a tropical fish store was allowed to be publicly topless (it has been suggested this is no more than urban legend) and laws dating from the period of Oliver Cromwell whch banned mince pies, Christmas puddings and anything promoting gluttony at Christmas. The winner? A law prohibiting dying in the Houses of Parliament (wearing a suit of armour is also prohibited in Parliament). Overseas, meanwhile, a law from Ohio in the US which says it’s illegal to get a fish drunk was voted most absurd, beating a French law prohibiting people from naming pigs Napoleon and a Florida law under which women who parachute on Sundays can be jailed. Makes one wonder what laws we’ll be laughing about in 50 or 100 years that are being created today.

Fancy arming yourself with pieces of cardboard and then heading off to war? Then Boxwars, “a battle of elite cardboard warriors”, may be for you.

Originating in Melbourne, the Boxwars phenomena apparently started in 2001 when some enterprising Melburnians spotted some kids fighting with cardboard swords and thought it would be fun.

The battles can involve hundreds of people clad in cardboard and resembling everything from robots to superheroes to historical figures. Such is the popularity of the idea that chapters now exist in both the UK and Canada.

And don’t think violence is the focus. As one of the founders, Ross Koger, said in a recent interview: “The main thing is the costumes - we’re not boneheads and we don’t run in trying to hurt each other.”