DAVID ADAMS looks at the odder side of life…
• A mysterious self-proclaimed censor has apparently been working undercover in an Idaho town’s library, hiding books they deem “propaganda”. For more than a year, books critical of US President Donald Trump as well as those addressing a range of issues including gun control or immigration have been taken off the library’s shelves in the town of Coeur d’Alene and hidden in obscure places within the building. A note left in the library’s comment box in August, 2018, reportedly read that the censor had “noticed a large volume of Books attacking our President”. “I am going to continue hiding these books in the most obscure places I can find to keep this propaganda out of the hands of young minds,” it said, adding: “Your liberal angst gives me great pleasure.” Librarian Bette Ammon is not amused, describing the person’s actions as “just blatant censorship”. The most frequenty targeted book is said to be Michael Wolff’s Fire and Fury. The hunt for the culprit continues.
But are they all where they should be? Not the Coeur d’Alene library. PICTURE: Susan Yin/Unsplash
• A man whose home was in danger of being destroyed during the recent Australian bushfires returned to find his two sheds gone but his home near Macksville in New South Wales saved – and a note from firefighters apologising for drinking his milk. Paul Sefky posted a copy of a handwritten note, signed by the Urunga Rural Fire Service, on Facebook. “It was our pleasure to save your house. Sorry that we could not save your sheds,” the note said. “P.S. – we owe you some milk.” Sefky, who is now living in a motel thanks to his house being uninhabitable, noted that the firefighters had also helped themselves to some cheese and peanut butter. Not that he minds. “They don’t have to pay back the milk, I’ll just sort them a couple of cases of beer,” Sekfy told CNN.
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• A Scottish artist recently created a 420 square metre drawing of flowers in under 12 hours to set a new Guinness World Record for the largest drawing by an individual. Johanna Basford, who illustrates adult colouring books with images of wildlife and flowers, took over the gym in her old school, Ellon Academy in Aberdeenshire, for the project. “Often we do our best creative work when up against,” she told local newspaper The Press and Journal. “It is a huge relief to have completed the drawing and have beaten the world record because I was behind schedule for a lot of the time.”
