Strange News

A Hallmark Christmas ornament has drawn criticism from people who accuse the greeting card company of political correctness and anti-gay bias. The ornament — a tiny sweater — is decorated with the words "Don we now our FUN apparel!" "Fun" replaces the word "gay" from the line in the Christmas song "Deck the Halls." Hallmark says it was trying to avoid misinterpretation and should never have made the change.

Steamboat Springs, Colo., police say it might have been hard to find the graffiti artist suspected of tagging downtown properties, except it's Halloween. The local paper says police found a similar design on a pumpkin at the graffiti artist's home.

It's a happy ending for Neil the potbelly pig, who faced eviction from his California home. Pigs are allowed as pets in Sierra Madre, but not hogs. An animal control officer suspected Neil was a hog — that is, a pig weighing more than 120 pounds. But a protest rally turned into a party when Neil was designated a legal pig by the city.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has not had a great year. After a winning a disputed election, he faces inflation near 50 percent. Supplies of basic goods like toilet paper have run low. Now Maduro is acting. He created a new Vice Ministry of Supreme Social Happiness. It's supposed to coordinate services for the poor.

A study released by the website CareerBuilder finds nearly a third of employees said they called in sick when they weren't really. Among their imaginative medical excuses: losing false teeth out the car window or extreme grumpiness from quitting smoking.

The British government has told a pub in the village of Stilton that it can't call its cheese Stilton. The name is protected by a law that says true Stilton cheese can come from three specific regions — not Cambridgeshire, where Stilton is located. The pub's landlord is weighing his legal options.

A mountain town in Norway has spent all 100 of its winters in the shade. Now that may change. A local artist campaigned to have mirrors placed on a mountainside. When unveiled on Oct. 31, they should drop a patch of sunlight in the town square.

We all know why the chicken crossed the road. Now, a new product wants to make sure they get to the other side safely. As chickens become more popular as pets, the British company Omlet is selling high-visibility chicken jackets — tiny fluorescent safety vets for when they're on the streets.

Police say a British man took Halloween decorating too far. He decorated his front yard to raise money for cancer research, but his display — inspired by the movie The Texas Chainsaw Massacre — terrified neighborhood children. It included a mock dismembered corpse.

When a man in Indiana, Pa., spotted a deer in the Wal-Mart parking lot, he shot it right there. The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reports he got six months' probation, even though it was, in fairness, the first day of hunting season.