Subscribe | UPI Odd Newsletter Subscribe Brits admit to terrible table manners LONDON, Nov. 15 (UPI) -- British table manners appear to be in decline with many in a recent survey admitting to serious violations of etiquette, including burping at the table. Advertisement The Daily Mail reported that one in five respondents rejected the rules against elbows on the table and leaving the table without asking permission. One in ten said they talk with their mouths full, 20 percent have been known to burp, 25 percent admitted licking their knives and 20 percent their plates. About half of those polled said they do not put their knives and forks together when they finish eating. Son finds dad's skull on mom's grave CARDIFF, Wales, Nov. 15 (UPI) -- A man who found a human skull on top of his mother's grave in a Welsh cemetery after a heavy rain has been told that it is probably his father's. Advertisement Colin Clarke's father, Brian, died in 1981 at the age of 47. He told the South Wales Echo the problem appears to have been that his father's grave in Cardiff's Western Cemetery was not deep enough and was disturbed when his mother, Doreen Hembury, was buried in June. "It's sick," Clarke said. "I'm furious. Anyone would be. I didn't know what it was at first. I though it was an animal skull. I was going to throw it away but as I got close I could see it was a human skull. I could see the teeth." Officials say that a DNA comparison will be done on the skull to determine if it is Brian Clarke's. The grave will also be excavated by hand, and, if Brian Clarke's bones have indeed been scattered, he will be reburied in a new coffin. World's oldest animal turns 175 BEERWAH, Australia, Nov. 15 (UPI) -- Harriet the Tortoise, with a credible claim to being the world's oldest animal, turned 175 Tuesday at the Australian zoo where she is spending her golden years. Harriet was hatched in the Galapagos Islands and may also be the last animal alive to have seen Charles Darwin, although that is less certain. Advertisement "She's the most amazingly prehistoric looking creature, and she has a presence like no other creature I've ever seen," zoologist Robin Stewart told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. For the last 10 years, Harriet has been a resident of the Australia Zoo run by Steve Irwin, television's "Crocodile Hunter," near Brisbane in Queensland. No one is quite sure how she got to Australia but she spent many years at a zoo in Brisbane, where she gave rides to tourists. Visitors also carved initials in her shell and soldiers celebrated returning home by painting her. R-rated film costs teacher his job ATLANTA, Nov. 15 (UPI) -- A popular Georgia teacher resigned under pressure after getting into trouble for showing the R-rated movie "Elizabeth" to an advanced English class. The movie, starring Cate Blanchett as Queen Elizabeth I, won critical acclaim. But it was also given an R rating because of violence and sexual references. Ed Youngblood, a longtime teacher at South Gwinnett High School in the Atlanta suburbs, had showed the movie before with no apparent ill effects, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. But this time, some students or their parents complained. Advertisement School officials say teachers who want to use materials that are not part of the curriculum, must submit them to a panel of students, teachers and parents, a procedure Youngblood bypassed. Youngblood, who was teaching part-time after retiring, says he was told he could quit or be fired. School officials refused to say if he was given an ultimatum. "I didn't think about it being R-rated," Youngblood said. "It's such a good movie."
