Not exactly the blow up toy junior should be playing with...

at least not at his age.

You had better really love "Friends"

$22,000 bill for downloading 4 episoes of "Friends" via Vodafone UK

The wife of a city executive cost her husband £11,000 ($22,000) after she downloaded four episodes of the sitcom "Friends" through his mobile phone while abroad. The Telegraph reports.

"The woman used the broadband package on his Vodafone mobile phone to order the programs, which would have been free had the download taken place in Britain.

However, her husband flew to Germany on business while the download was still in progress and it resumed after he touched down, incurring the massive fees.

The pair, who have not been named, discovered the unwelcome bill after the executive arrived back in the UK and Vodafone called his firm to alert him.

Ed Richards, the chief executive of industry regulator Ofcom, said it would investigate the huge fee. He said: "We will be looking to take action."

Those wacky Canadians Are At It Again.

Smitherman’s diaper musings spark outrage

So serious is he about the welfare of seniors, one of Ontario’s most outspoken cabinet ministers said today that he’s prepared to don an adult diaper — and use it — to satisfy himself that elderly residents of the province’s nursing homes are getting appropriate care.

Health Minister George Smitherman sent eyebrows skyward when he made the straight-faced suggestion in response to critics who say the standard of care in Ontario nursing homes is so bad, residents are spending hours on end wallowing in soiled diapers.

Those complaints have prompted him to “seriously consider” taking one of the diapers commonly used in Ontario nursing homes out for a test run.

“I’ve got one of these incontinence products — albeit a new one, not the ones that tend to appear at committee — on my desk and I’m really giving this matter very serious contemplation,” Smitherman told a group of wide-eyed reporters.

“I want to have the right policy for Ontarians.”

The bizarre remarks sparked outrage among opposition parties and lobby groups who advocate for better standards in the province’s long-term care facilities. The minister is making a farce out of serious questions about the dignity afforded seniors in Ontario, they charged.

“Smitherman’s a damned embarrassment,” said NDP critic Peter Kormos, whose leader Howard Hampton made an impassioned plea for seniors during the election campaign last fall.

If this doesn't make you feel better about flying I don't know what will.

Matt Venzke of Yorktown, Va., has won Wynkoop Brewing Company’s 2008 Beerdrinker of the Year contest.

Venke, an aircraft maintenance manager, is the second straight Virginia resident to win the competition. Diane Catanzaro of Norfolk won in 2007.

Venzke beat out finalists J Mark Angelus Oregon and and Richard Pedretti-Allen of Texas.

As the 2008 Beerdrinker of the Year, Venzke wins free beer for life at Wynkoop, a $250 beer tab at the Taphouse on Queensway and clothing proclaiming him the 2008 Beerdrinker of the Year.

If you're wearing pants you may want to remove them NOW!

Hot pants

Polish police are baffled after a cyclist was badly burned when his trousers burst into flames.

Mieczyslaw Jasinski, 55, told doctors he smelt burning and looked down to see his trousers had caught fire.

He jumped off his bike and rolled on the ground trying to douse the flames but suffered second degree burns to his legs, back and stomach.

Passers-by spotted him lying at the side of the road in Koroszczyn, still smoking from the tattered remains of his trousers and groaning in pain.

A police spokesman said: "Witnesses said he was like a flaming human torch cycling along the road.

"We do not know how it happened but we have heard that it could have been caused by a reaction between friction as he cycled, sweat and the material of his trousers."

An Eyeball Tatoo, I Kid You Not.

Those wacky Canadians are at it again!

What is thought to be the first ever "eyeball tattoo" has been inflicted on a man in Toronto - good news, perhaps, for anyone who ever dreamed of having blue eyes.

The tattooer injected ink into the eyeball of volunteer Pauly Unstoppable using a needle, until his eye was completely blue. Just in case you weren't yet feeling squeamish enough, bear in mind that it took more than 40 tries before the eye was filled with ink.

The blue substance used was mixed with antibiotic eyewash. The experiment was carried out for Canadian company ModProm, with those taking part insisting that Pauly would not go blind. Pauly himself declared: "I really have to emphasize again that the procedure was extensively researched and done by people who were aware of the risks and possible complications and that it should not be casually attempted.

More importantly— Who ever heard of a ham-and-cheese sandwich using one slice of bread?

A commercial, pre-packaged ham-and-cheese sandwich using one slice of bread is regulated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which conducts daily inspections under its jurisdiction, but a ham-and-cheese sandwich on two slices of bread falls to the Food and Drug Administration, which inspects plants about once every five years. That anomaly surfaced in the current presidential campaign and was verified by a Congressional Quarterly-St. Petersburg Times "Politifact" researcher in December.

A USDA official admitted to the Times that there "is no rationale or logic" behind the distinction: "(I)t's an issue that makes it look like we don't know what we're doing." [St. Petersburg Times, 12-11-07]