Alan Free, pictured, worked in a museum many years ago where this portrait of Vincenzo Guarignoni (c1572) hangs. Japanese tourists told him of the resemblance, but he didn't see it at the time.
Winning over mum with words
Jay writes: "Facing yet another messy kitchen to clean up, my sighing must have prompted my young son to leave the following note. 'I love Mum because she reads me books and teals [tells] me stores [stories]. Mum is isim [awesome] because she maks [makes] yumiy [yummy] food. She helps me wed [weed] the garden. She makes brefis [breakfast], lunch and dina [dinner] and snas [snacks].' Made my day to be 'isim'."
Brutal way to get in shape
After perusing last week's Chicago Tribune, Barbara Duncan had an unfortunate epiphany regarding the true meaning of ethnic cleansing. Prior to seeing a reference to gruesome Russian war crimes, Duncan believed an ethnic cleanse was a crash diet that used exotic spices or "maybe papaya juice". "When I first saw an article titled 'Southeast Ukraine's ethnic cleanse', I was like, 'Great, I need to lose four pounds; my niece's wedding is coming up!'," Duncan said. "But then I realised something wasn't right." Her enthusiasm quickly turned to disappointment. "Just one paragraph in and I'm reading about people dying from artillery fire. And I'm thinking, 'Man, I wanna lose weight, but that's a little extreme'. That's when it hit me: This might not be a weight-loss article. Ten thousand is too many people dying from a diet without Dr Oz covering it, so I knew something was up." She eventually enlisted a friend, Joanne Carver, to help." (Via reductress.com)
Defensive parking strategy
