Alas, Poor Yorick and His Cousins...

Being a baggage examiner must have some interesting moments. People travel with all sorts of belongings and mementos and with such heightened security there's a long list of items not permitted to board an airplane. Why fingernail clippers pose such a great risk and are confiscated is beyond me. Do they think someone could be manicured to death? Or do airlines have stock in a manufacturing company and profit from selling new ones when someone lands? It's beyond me. However, some things that show up in x-rays are likely to turn a few heads.

Last week at Athens International Airport in Greece two US tourists on their way home to California were stopped after security discovered six skulls stashed in their luggage. While visiting Mykonos the Californians told authorities they purchased the skulls, which they believed were decorative replicas, from a souvenir shop for US$33 each to use as Halloween decorations. Each was charged with desecrating the dead after a coroner confirmed that they were, in fact, real human skulls. The pair were released pending trial.

After arguing their case before a court, the two tourists were acquitted this week of any wrong-doing on their part. Police are launching an investigation to find the sellers and return the bones to their rightful place. When the guilty parties are apprehended, heads certainly will roll.

Dead Comedy Lives Long in History...

"This parrot is no more! It has ceased to be! It's a stiff! ...Bereft of life, he rests in peace! ...He's kicked the bucket, he's shuffled off his mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleedin' choir invisible!! THIS IS AN EX-PARROT!!"

While Monty Python became famous for these memorable lines from their "Dead Parrot Sketch", the joke itself predates the British comedy routine... by nearly 1,600 years!

A recently republished collection of some of the world's oldest jokes, Philogelos: The Laugh Addict, contains an ancient Greek witticism written in 4 AD about a man returning a recently-purchased dead slave to his seller. "By the gods, when he was with me, he never did any such thing!" replies the seller.

Fortunately for John Cleese and the rest of his comedic comrades, there were no copyright infringements made on the joke since it was written without prior knowledge of the Greek farce. Besides, the author is long since dead... and unavailable for refund, as well.

If you've never watched the Monty Python sketch, or care to revisit it, here's a clip from a live performance in 1976:


You can also get your own plush "sleeping" parrot in remembrance of the classic British comedy skit.