Sideswipe: December 27: Sounds like a plan

Local government reporting is a dry subject.

No mingling among 'damn dirty apes'

Here's a fascinating story from the filming of the 1968 science fiction film Planet of the Apes, from Neatorama.com.

In that movie, there are three ape species: chimpanzees, gorillas and orang-utans. When the actors for the ape characters put on their makeup and costumes, they segregated themselves by species: During the filming of Planet of the Apes in 1967, Charlton Heston noted "an instinctive segregation on the set. Not only would the apes eat together, but the chimpanzees ate with the chimpanzees, the gorillas ate with the gorillas, the orang-utans ate with the orang-utans, and the humans would eat off by themselves. It was quite spooky."

James Franciscus noticed the same thing filming Beneath the Planet of the Apes in 1969. "During lunch I looked up and realised, 'My God, here is the universe,' because at one table were all the orang-utans eating, at another table were the apes, and at another table were the humans."

Indoor Sports in St Lukes shows how much it values its disabled customers.

Chunky monkey epidemic in UK

First it was Britain's human population, then it was cats and dogs. Now, it seems that even the country's pet monkeys have succumbed to an obesity epidemic. Animal welfare experts have warned that growing numbers of primates are facing problems with their weight, as a result of sugar-rich diets and lack of exercise. There are an estimated 5,000 monkeys kept as pets in the UK. But welfare experts report seeing an increasing number of health problems among the animals, apparently caused by unhealthy lifestyles.

Staff at sanctuaries devoted to caring for primates say they are dealing with many former pets being handed over to them suffering from the effects of "couch potato" lifestyles, where they have been indulged on unsuitable human foods and not given enough exercise. Jean Smith, who runs the Yorkshire Monkey Sanctuary, said: "We have had them too fat to move sometimes. It is just a question of the wrong diet. They are fed on things like sweets, pizza, chips and cake - whatever their owner is eating. And many don't have enclosures large enough to run it all off." The sanctuary has more than 40 monkeys and around half of those suffer from health problems linked to nutrition and exercise.

Souvenir milk power?

Is this the coolest granny in the world?

Read about this badass 103-year-old granny, who once stole a car at age nine, gambles, enjoys Johnnie Walker, is partial to bacon, has considered trying weed and got inked on her latest birthday. Did we mention she is 103?

Healthy eating tips for McDonald's workers

McDonald's has dished out a piece of gem advice to its staff, warning them about the dangers of fast food.

Video

Her parents may be deaf, but this sweet 5-year-old made sure they didn't miss out on her performance:

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