By ,
Published January 13, 2015
Finally, an answer to the time-honored riddle: How many Joneses can dance on the head of a pin?
That's assuming, of course, that by "dance" one means "sit" and by "on the head of a pin" one means "in the Wales Millennium Centre."
Sound too loopy to be true? Hardly.
An extremely motivated and homogenous Welsh town is setting out to break the record for the largest gathering of people with the same surname, which is currently held by Sweden's party of 583 Norbergs, Sky News reports.
Since the town of Blaenau Ffestiniog is home to the largest proportion of Joneses, and Joneses are a dime a dozen in Britain, it was chosen as the locale for the great surname soiree.
But organizers are hoping the building will be festooned with more than just your average Jonses — Sir Tom Jones is on their list of potential attendees.
Entrants, who will have to verify their Jones-ness with a passport or driver's license, will be asked to congregate for their collective cause Nov. 3.
Go Play (Possum) in Traffic, Why Don't Cha?
SYDNEY, Australia (AP) — A driver stranded on a remote stretch of Australian highway Wednesday tried to summon help by playing dead in the middle of the road, a police officer said.
A woman who was driving with her two children spotted the man and had to swerve to avoid hitting him, said Doug Backhouse, a detective with the Western Australia state police.
"She drove around the body, which didn't move at all, and got to the nearest phone," Backhouse said.
Local police arrived with an ambulance and found the man alive and well, but with car troubles.
"The best way he thought to get a vehicle to stop was to lay down in the middle of the road and pretend to be dead," Backhouse said, adding that the man didn't think anyone would stop if he were standing up.
Police said they told the man that lying in the road was "a stupid thing to do," but didn't charge him with any offense.
The incident occurred near Esperance, about 450 miles southeast of the state capital, Perth.
This Bout of Airborne Barf-o-rama Brought to You By ...
PHOENIX (AP) — US Airways wants to make the most out of a nauseating situation. The Tempe, Ariz.-based airline plans to sell advertisements on its air-sickness bags — those pint-sized expandable envelopes tucked between the in-flight magazines and safety cards.
"They're in every back seat pocket," said spokesman Phil Gee. "We figure while it's there, why don't we make it multipurpose?"
Passengers should see the new, commercialized sickness bags in September, he said.
The ads are just the latest initiative the company has used to squeeze out a bigger profit. America West, which merged with US Airways last year, had the first advertisements in the industry on tray tables, the first airline gift cards and the first in-flight meals for sale.
"Little things like that work," said Michael Boyd, president of the Boyd Group, an aviation consulting group in Evergreen, Colo. "Barf bags have a lot of shelf life — people aren't barfing as much in planes as they used to."
The new bags drew a few chuckles among US Airways passengers at the company's hub at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport.
"I would honestly pay no attention to an ad if I got sick," said Nathan Vierra, 19, a student. "But hey, if skateboarders can sell ad space on their T-shirts, I guess why can't an airline sell ads on barf bags?"
US Airways has not decided how much it will charge for the ads, and has only begun negotiating with companies that could be interested, Gee said.
The ads could be for anti-motion sickness medications or other products immediately on the mind of someone who reaches for one of the bags.
But Gee said US Airways will look for a wide range of product advertisements to put on its bags.
Boyd said the trick for US Airways is to find ads that will make them a little cash without turning off customers.
"Some people don't want the inside of their cabins to look like subway cars," he said. "And the jury isn't in on advertising on tray tables as a decent way to boost revenue. But having an advertisement for a barf bag, especially if it's for something like Dramamine, now that's brilliant."
'Please Order in Pennsylvania Dutch'
OLEY, Pa. (AP) — A diner in Berks County, Pa., is poking fun at the English-only cheesesteak policy in Philadelphia.
The owner of Geno's Steaks in South Philadelphia has posted signs stating, "This is America: When Ordering Speak English." The new sign at the Oley Legion Diner says, "Please Order in Pennsylvania Dutch."
The request isn't enforced, although some regulars say they often speak the dying Pennsylvania German dialect.
"Sometimes that comes out first," one resident said.
The Sad Story of a Neighborhood Gone to Pot
LaPORTE, Ind. (AP) — An anonymous caller led a police officer to a 3-foot-tall marijuana plant growing in a brick planter along a downtown sidewalk.
The planters are maintained by the city's Business Improvement District, a group of local business owners who for years have organized volunteers to weed each of the 130-plus planters.
That work, however, did not catch the marijuana plant that Officer John Butcher found Monday night.
Chief of Detectives Adam Klimczak said the marijuana was likely planted on purpose, but he had no idea who might have done it. Butcher pulled the plant and took it to the police station, where it was destroyed.
The planters, which have a built-in sprinkler system, were built in the late 1990s as part of a downtown improvement project that included the addition of brick sidewalks and old-fashioned street lamps in the city about 25 miles west of South Bend.
Dave Sanderson, president of the Business Improvement District, suspected the marijuana was planted as a joke and said that the volunteers were unlikely to have noticed it.
"I wouldn't know a marijuana plant from a dandelion," he said. "I'm not sure if they would either."
Compiled by FOXNews.com's Taylor Timmins.
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