Subscribe | UPI Odd Newsletter Subscribe LEMME GUESS: HE'S AN OZZY OSBOURNE FAN An Indiana high school wrestling coach faces a two-week suspension for biting off the head of a live sparrow in front of his team. Advertisement On a 4-1 vote Monday night, the school board at Avon High School in Avon, Ind., suspended Aron D. Bright. No date has yet been set for the start of the disciplinary action. "It was innocent fun," Bright, 31, who also teaches history and geography, told the Indianapolis Star after the meeting. He said his students are still laughing about the Dec. 28 incident at his parents' home in Connersville, although he admitted "it was unprofessional." But he noted no one was injured. Except for maybe THE BIRD...? BOYS WILL BE BOYS Unseemly jokes circulated at Stockholm's weekend conference of "progressive" leaders, where Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and South Africa's Thabo Mbeki agreed to find a useful job for former Presidential Clinton. He was asked to run a special mission for NEPAD, the New Partnership for African Development Project, officially defined as "a holistic, comprehensive, integrated strategic framework for the socio-economic development of Africa." Advertisement The acronym sparked tiresome jests about Monica Lewinsky and her presidential kneepads, and caused diplomats to collapse in giggles as they read aloud the official NEPAD goal of "promoting the role of women in all activities." (From UPI Hears) HAPPY BIRTHDAY, VICTOR HUGO France kicked off a celebration of the 200th birthday of French literary giant Victor Hugo Tuesday with a year-long program of eulogies, plays, poetry readings and sound-and-light shows to celebrate Hugo's legacy and the country's literary traditions. In Paris, a giant portrait of Hugo gazes out from one wall of the stately Luxembourg Palace on the city's left back, framed by a rose-pink background. Panels nearby trace the writer's long career, as poet, playwright, politician, explorer and novelist. A few miles away, France's national library is launching a Hugo exposition next month, featuring 350 manuscripts, letters and sketches by the writer, along with a series of conferences on Hugo-related themes. The city's famous Comedie-Francais and Maison de la Poesie are also featuring special Hugo shows, and drama students will be staging readings at cafes across Paris. Hugo was born in the eastern French town of Besancon on Feb. 26, 1802. The smash musical "Les Miserables," based on Hugo's famous novel of the French revolution, continues to play on Broadway. Another celebrated Hugo novel, "The Hunchback of Notre Dame," is still widely read. Advertisement (Thanks to UPI's Elizabeth Bryant in Paris) REASONS TO CELEBRATE TODAY: WEDNESDAY: The Dominican Republic celebrates its Independence Day today. (Thanks to Chase's 2002 Calendar of Events) BY THE WAY... Who was the first African-American to perform with the New York Metropolitan Opera? Marian Anderson, one of the world's finest contraltos, who was born on this date in 1897.
