5 things we learned this week
1
DOGS love the smell and taste of cinnamon. So says a list of tips for robbing houses written by a burglar in the 1950s. Published in the US policing textbook, Preliminary Criminal Investigations, the list of top techniques includes leaving ‘a phoney coat button at the scene’ to confuse cops, and finding out rich people’s birthdays. ‘Chances are they have birthday parties downstairs. Then [you can] ransack [upstairs] rooms’.
2
EU officials have fish for hands. Not literally, of course – but that bizarre image emerged from the final day of an EU summit in Strasbourg, where delegates were treated to a ten-minute interpretive dance performance by the French group Danse l’Europe, pictured right. Dancers moved to the sounds of soft synth music with a whispered French voiceover saying things like: ‘You have just arrived on the moon... Your hands become fish... You discover a new planet.’ Imagine, tweeted journalist Harry Wallop. ‘Some people still scratch their heads and wonder how on earth Brexit happened.’ 3
Ukraine has captured more Russian tanks than Britain has in all its armoured regiments. So far, 236 Russian tanks have been seized since the start of the war – many of which are still in working order. The British Army has just 227 operational tanks.
4
In 1990, Guinness World Records ‘retired’ more than 40 gluttony records over health concerns. The axed records involved excessive consumption of things like eels, pancakes and spaghetti. Top losses include fastest time to eat a whole roast ox (42 days) and most beer drunk in an hour (a staggering 36 pints).
5
Victorian writer John Ruskin had a deadpan sense of humour. When he was particularly busy, Ruskin would issue a standard reply to any written requests that came his way. It read: ‘Mr J Ruskin is about to begin a work of great importance and therefore begs that in reference to calls and correspondence you will consider him dead for the next two months.’
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