KEY POINTS:
A 4-year-old rider has landed nearly 4000 pounds ($10,000) worth of sponsorship after regularly beating rivals twice his age. Arron Butterfield, from Frome in Somerset, won his first riding-show prize aged 2 and garnered more than 25 rosettes last year. At just 91.5cm, the junior jumps rider vaults fences like a professional on his mount, a Welsh mountain pony called Pickles. Arron still goes to preschool in the week, after which his father Alex Butterfield, a former jockey, takes him for a two-hour riding session. He has taken first prize in four local horse shows - sometimes beating adult competitors. This year Arron has been awarded four different sponsorship deals worth a total of 3750 pounds.
***
Led Zeppelin to play Bonnaroo festival in US, gushed the headline in the Daily Telegraph. But if journalists had read the press release more carefully, they would have realised that it's actually all-female Zeppelin cover band Lez Zeppelin who was on the bill. The confusion arose after it was announced Led Zeppelin's Robert Plant would play the Tennessee festival with Alison Krauss. This started rumours Led Zeppelin themselves would be playing. Showing a sense of humour about the whispers, organisers added the all-female cover band Lez Zeppelin to the lineup.
***
A reader writes: "Fatso rang me late last year to offer me a free trial of their DVD mailouts. I accepted the free offer but refused to give them my credit card number - I did not want to commit to a subscription. I then found that they had just gone ahead and taken money from my credit card account without my authority. I can only assume they have obtained the number from a previous (but terminated) subscription as I expressly refused to give my credit card number for the free trial. I have emailed them more than once to advise that I consider their actions to be theft and requesting a refund. No response. So I cancelled my credit card. They have now emailed me to tell me that they cannot continue service, and that they are continuing to bill to my name. Has anyone else received such astounding customer service from Fatso?"
***
All it took for students at one central Florida school to improve their grades and behaviour was a challenge from their principal. Bob Vicari said he'd eat live bugs if the students improved their overall grades. They did. Twice in his six years as principal of Osceola Middle School in Seminole, he has moved his office to the roof as part of a deal with his students. Over the years he's had pies smashed in his face and been pelted by water balloons. But he took it to a whole other level when in front of 400 school kids he ate three crunchy crickets. Asked how it tasted, Vicari said, "Like a stale peanut". (Source: wjxx.com)
