Jockstrip: The world as we know it

THINGS WE DON'T UNDERSTAND

About 500 people shucked their clothes at London's Selfridges department store over the weekend to participate in the latest fad called "strip art."

The British Broadcasting Corp. says New York-born artist Spencer Tunick -- who had done this in other venues in Montreal and in Brazil -- had the mostly young crowd posed on escalators and elsewhere around the store for photographs.

Mass nudity isn't new but is now the fashion as volunteers like the tension it creates.

In February, 240 volunteers ages 5 to 95 agreed to be wrapped in cling film to allow plastercasts to be made of their bodies for an exhibition by sculptor Antony Gormley, the BBC says.

NEWS OF OTHER LIFE FORMS

It was lucky for Kayla Worden the weekend rains held off until Sunday afternoon -- otherwise the lunch crowd at Broad and High streets in Columbus, Ohio, would have seen more show than she planned for, says the Columbus Dispatch.

Mostly naked except for orange and black paint that made her up like a tiger, Worden spent an hour in a cage protesting the treatment of animals by circuses.

Worden, of Asheville, N.C., clad in a G-string and pasties, was part of a People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals event that coincided with the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus coming to town. Circus officials have defended their animal care and Ringling Bros. has no violations.

"It's an eye-catcher. It's basically a naked woman, no matter how much paint she has on," Champagne Braswell told the paper. "It's a little drastic, I think."

TODAY'S SIGN THE WORLD IS ENDING

Since 1952 the Fifth Avenue Grocery in Roundup, Mont., has been shuttered tight.

The Billings Gazette writes thousands of items, most in mint condition, were locked in a time warp -- ranging from bars of soap, tubs of honey and packs of cigarettes -- to the rare and valuable -- an American Flyer miniature train set with a wind-up locomotive, a souvenir scorecard from the 1929 World Series and an antique Coca-Cola display that hadn't even been taken out of its wrapper.

On Wednesday, at an auction house in Billings, the contents of the store will go on sale, the proceeds going to charity.

Other items on the auction block include an unused Ultratone record player and radio; a Shinola shoe shine kit with a can of polish, a brush and a buffer; Kool-Aid packets in an original display case; an old set of golf clubs made in Scotland in a corduroy bag; and two large oil-cloth posters of cowgirls holding cans of Golden West coffee.

AND FINALLY, TODAY'S UPLIFTING STORY

The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reports a welder who grew up in central Wisconsin and later moved to Milwaukee died at age 95, leaving $750,000 to the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources to plant trees in northern Wisconsin.

Anton Govek had planned the bequeath for a long time and DNR officials are thrilled by the gift, saying it's the largest ever for tree planting.

Govek and his wife did not have any children but he had a strong belief in the importance of trees. Govek is remembered as hardworking but frugal.

His largess after his death however, will result in the planting of between 3 million and 4 million trees.