Jockstrip: The world as we know it.

Wizard wannabe gets stuck in traffic cone

CULLOMPTON, England, Oct. 23 (UPI) -- A 3-year-old from Cullompton, England, had to be freed from a traffic cone by firefighters after it became stuck on his head.

Charlie Thomas, 3, apparently put the cone on his head to imitate one of his heroes, popular wizard Harry Potter, but couldn't remove it once it was in place, Britain's The Daily Mail reported Monday.

His parents, Louisa and Martin Thomas couldn't remove the cone either, so they called in the fire brigade, which used an assortment of small tools and levers to remove the cone. It took the crew 45 minutes to arrive and another 30 to remove the cone but Charlie was a good boy and didn't panic, his mother told the newspaper.

"He loves Harry Potter and when he put the cone on he was so pleased with himself, it was very sweet," she said to The Daily Mail. "We shouldn't have laughed but we had a chuckle -- he looked so comical even though he was a bit upset."

On-stage bite ends dog's acting career

STOCKHOLM, Sweden, Oct. 23 (UPI) -- A canine actor has been fired from a production of "The Sound of Music" in Stockholm, Sweden, after he bit an actor during the show's final scene.

Spokesman Johan Zeffer of the Gota Lejon theater said management was left with little choice but to fire the dog, a 9-year-old German Shepard named Hetz, after he bit actor Felix Engstrom on stage Friday, The Local reported Monday.

"The dog has been sacked," Zeffer said.

Engstrom said the attack was out of character for Hetz, who he said was normally a very good-natured animal, the newspaper reported.

"It's a very highly charged final scene in which I'm quite aggressive," Engstrom said in explaining the dog's possible motivations for the bite.

Trainer Erica Bjorkman said the end of Hetz's acting career is weighing heavily on the pooch.

"Hetz seems a little bit depressed at the moment," she told The Local.

Pigeon droppings pelt ballet-goers

BRISTOL, England, Oct. 23 (UPI) -- Two audience members were pelted with pigeon droppings while attending a ballet production in the English city of Bristol.

It seems there has been a hole in the roof of the Bristol Hippodrome for some time but audience members usually escape the regular aerial bombardments by pigeons, The Daily Mail in London reported Monday.

Unfortunately, escape wasn't in the cards for Duncan Poulter, 60 and his wife who were watching an English Ballet production of "The Snow Queen" when the pigeons attacked.

"During the first part we could hear a dull thudding noise, which we discovered was pigeon droppings falling onto a gent in front of us," Poulter said. "We could also smell bird droppings, and the seats in front of us were splattered with them, too."

Poulter said the manager offered to pay his dry cleaning bill when he told him about the pigeons. Poulter also wants the $35 he spent on tickets refunded, The Daily Mail said.

Parrot mocked alarm to save lives

MUNCIE, Ind., Oct. 23 (UPI) -- A Muncie, Ind., man said his pet parrot saved his life and his son's when it loudly mimicked the house's fire alarm to wake them up.

Shannon Conwell said the bird roused him and his 9-year-old son after they had fallen asleep on the couch while watching a movie, the Muncie Star-Press reported Monday.

Conwell said the bird woke them up at about 3 a.m. by mimicking the house's smoke alarm, which had been set off by a fire that destroyed the house's dining room, kitchen and bedroom.

"He was really screaming his head off," Conwell said of Peanut, an Amazon parrot that had lived with the family for about six months before the blaze.

"I grabbed my son and my bird and got out of the house," Conwell said.

Conwell, who earlier in the day had part of his finger amputated due to an accident involving a tow truck, said the American Red Cross was providing hotel accommodations for the family.