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Oddly Enough

News, but not the serious kind

May 6th, 2008

Now, share those grenades, Joey!

Posted by: Robert Basler

weapons-2-160.jpgQuick quiz: your kids are pestering you for the so-called “day of fun” you promised them a couple of years ago when you were half-asleep.

A really good place to take them just to shut them up would be…

Yeah, I was surprised by that last option, too, until I saw our pictures of small children playing with assault rifles, grenade launchers and I don’t know, maybe even nuclear warheads. It’s anybody’s guess what they sell at the souvenir shop.

Related slideshow:

weapons-1-360.jpgA boy points a grenade launcher during the People’s Liberation Army Camp Open Day Stanley Fort in Hong Kong, May 1, 2008. REUTERS/ Victor Fraile

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April 25th, 2008

Rookie, where’s your pillow?

Posted by: Robert Basler

This is another in the popular series we call “Things Maybe we Should Have Explained in the Caption, but Didn’t.” Here we have a photo of a dude we’re told is a new police graduate in Iraq, demonstrating his skills by playing dead.

Huh? I don’t think they teach that class to police cadets here, and frankly I’m a little surprised there is a need for it in Iraq.  From what you read, you’d think the police over there would have other stuff to occupy their time.

“Yo Ron! The new duty roster is posted. Yep, you and I are both playing dead all week. Sweet deal, dude! We lie down for four hours, sit up and eat lunch, then lie down for another four, and then it’s off to the doughnut shop! Is this a great place, or what?”

Related post: Like they don’t have enough problems?

grad-360.jpgA new police graduate lies on the ground and plays dead during a demonstration of skills by new police graduates in Najaf, Iraq, April 24, 2008. Some 425 police cadets graduated on Thursday after three months of training at a police academy in Najaf. REUTERS/Ali Abu Shish

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April 12th, 2008

I guess we’re playing stud?

Posted by: Robert Basler

Blog Guy, I’ve heard there is a kind of poker played with live, gun-toting  troops.

cards-140.jpgThat’s ”Neck Deck Poker,” or “Ante Maim,” where 52  armed soldiers each have one card behind their head. They jump in a pile and roll around, to “shuffle” the deck.  Then they put money in the pot and form poker hands. This pair of deuces is going for a full house, which…

Stop! That’s utter pig slop! You made it up to support a funny photograph. I’m going to another blog!

But wait, I haven’t told you how they cut the cards! 

Related post: Simon says, cover your eyes!

cards-360.jpgParamilitary police at training session in Beijing April 10, 2008. Playing cards ensure that the police maintain good posture. REUTERS/Joe Chan

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April 10th, 2008

New cargo shorts, Mr. bin Laden?

Posted by: Robert Basler

This photo from Afghanistan stopped me cold. Is the guy in the white cap wearing a Burberry scarf? Have they opened a little shop in downtown Kabul to compete with Louis Vuitton and others?

Okay, another possibility. Say the scarf is counterfeit, an occasional problem with this distinctive plaid. This still means designer stuff has made it to Afghanistan!

So, if he is ever captured, Osama bin Laden may be wearing the double breasted belted trench coat with epaulettes and, ironically, what Burberry calls a “gunflap.” He may be sporting their $240 cargo shorts, and a slathering of Burberry men’s aftershave, described as a “refined and elegant woody ambery fragrance…”  It makes you think.

More Burberry news: Smuggling melons in a stocking cap?

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Afghans travel in a bus as it rains in Kabul April 9, 2008. REUTERS/Ahmad Masood

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April 9th, 2008

Wait here, boss, I’m going out to my car!

Posted by: Robert Basler

It turns out a “take-your-guns-to-work” law was just passed by the Florida senate, letting workers keep guns in their cars for self-protection, so road rage doesn’t need to be just an empty outburst, and then lock those guns in their cars while they go into work.

It does exempt some workplaces, like nuclear power plants, prisons and schools, so obviously it’s been carefully thought through. But what about those Cape Canaveral astronauts? Can they take guns up to the shuttle? And you have to think about the heat, which can top a sizzling 100 degrees there. When your coworkers leave guns and ammo on the dashboard in the sun, will there be surprises?

One of the law’s backers says this was dear in the hearts of the founding fathers. Well, sure. Anybody who is watching that John Adams series on HBO will remember the debate between Adams and Jefferson, about having flintlocks in their Pontiacs…

More posts about

guns-300.jpgGuns on display at a National Rifle Association Meeting in in Orlando, Florida in a 2003 file photo. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton

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March 28th, 2008

Kind of a waste of clay pigeons, no?

Posted by: Robert Basler

It turns out India’s marksmen are threatening to boycott the upcoming Olympics because they have a shortage of ammunition for training. You can read about it in Marksmen fed up with shooting blanks.

I could see where this may be demoralizing. Oh sure, at first it’s great, just pretending to have bullets. “Hey Floyd! Fantastic! You didn’t miss anything! But you need to improve on pointing your fingers, and you have to make more realistic shooting sounds with your mouth…”

But then you start to wonder about how many other athletes are training without proper equipment. Divers with no water in the pool? Fencers with no foils? “I stuck you!” “No you didn’t! That’s just a thumb!”

In the end, it’s sad for good athletes who really want to compete. Just remember, even Deputy Barney Fife got one bullet.

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India’s Rajyavardhan S. Rathore competes in the men’s double trap final of the Athens 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, August 17, 2004. Rathore took silver with a score of 179. REUTERS/Guang Niu

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February 21st, 2008

Shotgun wedding? roll out the double-barrel!

Posted by: Robert Basler

shells-this-140.jpgBlog Guy, I have a delicate problem. Our daughter is getting married next week and it’s a shotgun wedding. I’m choosing my dress, and I don’t know where I should carry my ammo for the event. 

Um, you may be taking that term a tad too literally. Modern parents don’t often tote a real shotgun to the nuptials. 

There are trendy tasers and other items to make sure the groom ”does the right thing.” And check out this number, which incorporates your firepower right into the dress!

But, if your heart is set on a traditional, old-fashioned shotgun marriage, complete with showing your gauge to the engaged, I’d recommend this creation. It turns your extra shotgun shells into festive accessories in a truly glamorous outfit. Bridesmaids, lock and load!

fashion-weird-300-crop.jpgA model displays a creation by Fashion East during their Autumn/Winter 2008 show at London Fashion Week February 13, 2008. REUTERS/Alessia Pierdomenico

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July 25th, 2007

Give me that Uzi, Susie, it’s my turn!

Posted by: Robert Basler

It’s time again for another installment of our very popular feature, “Truth, or Spoof?” in which readers have to guess whether a story is real news, or very clever satire.

It seems a planned Republican fundraising event in New Hampshire is inviting party members and their families to a Machine Gun Shoot, where they can spend a day trying out automatic weapons such as Uzi submachine guns and M-16 rifles. 

The organizer is quoted as saying, It’s a fun day. It’s a family day. Here’s the story:

More Oddly Enough Blog

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Tessa Green of Kalamazoo, Michigan shoots a Micro Uzi submachine gun during the Knob Creek Machine Gun Shoot near West Point, Kentucky April 8, 2005. REUTERS/Rick Wilking

June 14th, 2007

Mimes fighting to be heard….

Posted by: Robert Basler

Now the truth is out. By day, mimes entertain us by silently pretending to be trapped in glass boxes, and … well, come to think of it, that’s pretty much the extent of their act. 

Anyway, it turns out these white-faced denizens of street theater have their own army, with big mime guns - probably equipped with silencers - and they are planning some kind of revolution. The government is now aware of their violent plans, and reportedly is building enormous glass boxes for holding the thousands of mime POWs expected to be captured soon.

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Soldiers from special force unit “COE” take part in a military training exercise at the military base, near  Managua, June 13, 2007.  REUTERS/Oswaldo Rivas

March 8th, 2007

Vodka and guns: your classic mix…

Posted by: Robert Basler

You remember the posting yesterday showing a wolf hunter blowing into his gun? It didn’t look like the safest thing in the world, and it brought to mind that wise saying, “Friends don’t let friends suck on a gun barrel.”

Well, it gets better. The hunt is over now, and what nicer way to celebrate than with a picnic on the hood of your car, complete with ample supplies of vodka? We’ve got our guns and our booze and our car - a perfect combo.

“Hey George! Don’t hog that vodka! Pass me another tumbler, and now it’s my turn to stand in front of the gun!”

Oddly Enough Blog

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Hunters drink vodka to celebrate a successful wolf hunt in the village of Zarecha, north of Minsk, March 7, 2007. Hunting wolves in Belarus is legal the whole year. REUTERS/ Vasily Fedosenko