Fly by mate

The sight of Xavier Bouget riding his bicycle with Blanchon perched on his shoulder or head has become a popular one around the town of Gommenec’h in France. Pic/@MyTroc, Facebook

Xavier Bouget, an 80-year-old pensioner from France's Brittany region, and Blanchon, and a majestic white pigeon, have been best friends for two years, ever since the Frenchman rescued the bird from becoming a cat's lunch.

Bouget first met his unlikely companion two years ago, while walking to his house in the town of Gommenec'h. He noticed this small, almost featherless pigeon chick fall out of its nest, in a desperate attempt to escape a hungry cat. He didn't think to help it at first, but when he got home and mentioned it to his wife, Marie-Françoise, she asked him why he didn't pick it up. So he went back to get the small pigeon chick, which had miraculously managed to escape the purring predator until his return. Bouget came home with the frail bird in his hand, not knowing that it would soon become his best and closest friend. "For a month-and-a-half I fed him with a syringe five times a day," the French pensioner, once a hunter, who has long given up his rifle, recalls.

Bouget says that he doesn't know whether Blanchon is grateful to him for having saved her life, but one thing he is certain of is that she doesn't stick around just for the food. She can find plenty to eat around Gommenec'h, and she's always been free to come and go as she pleases. The bird just enjoys his company, there's no other way to explain it.

The curious case of the missing kabootars

Up to 2,50,000 birds were released in some 50 races all across Britain recently, but only 10 per cent managed to return in the expected time. Thousands are still missing, and some have subsequently been spotted as far away as Holland and Majorca. The mass disappearance has prompted some to dub the day "the worst day in the sport's history". Disappearances were first highlighted in reports about a race from Peterborough to the North East, in which more than half of the 9,000 pigeons taking part went AWOL. Dene Simpson, race controller for the South West Wales Federation of pigeon fanciers, said the same also happened to him and his friends. A huge number of the birds suddenly disappeared without a trace. Some suggest that a solar storm could have disrupted the pigeons' sense of direction.

A whole new world

Pic/@daretay lorofficial, Instagram

Dare Taylor had dreamed about working at Disney from the age of eight. She was always enthralled by its costumed characters during annual visits to the Disney World in Florida with her mother. The pair would travel to Orlando from their small town of Belle Plaine, Minnesota, and marvel at the fanfare and fireworks. Her long-nurtured dream came true when she got to dress up as Princess Jasmine, the love interest of Aladdin at Disney World. She was routinely stationed in the shadow of the iconic Cinderella Castle and she immersed herself in a role that mostly involved small talk with excited little girls. But, after five years of playing her dream role, the 26-year-old hung up Jasmine's MC Hammer pants for good and is now a star on the adult digital platform OnlyFans, with a large following.

Guests ends up washing dishes at wedding

A wedding is supposed to be a happy time for all involved, but sometimes things don't go as planned. That was certainly the experience one Reddit user had when she was invited to a wedding at a "gorgeous and expensive" venue, only to find the cost of hosting the "beautiful ceremony" meant cutbacks in other areas. She wrote: "The bride and groom blew most of their wedding money on the venue and the bride's gown, so they decided to ‘self-cater'." The maid of honour, incidentally, took guests into the kitchen and asked them to wash stacks of plates and cups. The viral Reddit post garnered a lot of comments from amused users.

Teething Troubles

A new and controversial weight loss device seeks to lock jaws together to fight global obesity epidemic

Scientists at the University of Otago, in New Zealand have developed the DentalSlim Diet Control, a controversial weight loss device designed to allow wearers to open their mouths only about 2mm, thus making them unable to chew while making breathing and speaking possible.

Pic/University of Otago, Twitter

The DentalSlim Diet Control can be attached to the wearer's upper and lower back teeth by a dental professional. It features unique custom-manufactured locking bolts powered by magnets, which, when activated, only allows a mouth opening of about 2 mm, restricting the wearer to a liquid diet. Apparently, the developers of the DentalSlim Diet Control believe that it can play a role in the fight against the global obesity epidemic.

"The main barrier for people for successful weight loss is compliance and this helps them establish new habits, allowing them to comply with a low-calorie diet for a period of time. It really kick-starts the process," University of Otago Health Sciences Pro-Vice-Chancellor Professor Paul Brunton said in a press release.

Man with fetish for women's shoes held

A raid in Murakami, Japan, yielded an unusual haul: 139 pairs of worn women's shoes discovered in the possession of Tsunehito Isobe, a 47-year-old office worker with a fetish for used women's shoes. "I've been stealing for several years. I did it to satisfy my sexual desire, the smell is an important point," he told the police.

Forgotten painting by Fragonard sold for $9mn

A painting by Fragonard was found in the possession of a family who had no idea it was a work by the French master. Antoine Petit, an auctioneer at the Encheres Champagne auction house in Epernay, had gone to an apartment in Marne, when a painting hanging on the wall caught his eye. Later, experts verified that it was Fragonard's artwork, dating from 1768-1770 and it was sold for $9 million.

Woman had gamepiece in nose for 37 years

A hospital worker, who lived for 37 years with nose pain, discovered a game board piece, which was stuck there at the age of eight. When she recently underwent a surgery to determine the cause of the painful irritation, the surgeon was shocked to pull out a plastic tiddlywink, a game board piece, which had been in McCarthy's nose since she was a kid.

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