Subscribe | UPI Odd Newsletter Subscribe THINGS WE DON'T UNDERSTAND Carl Allison of Fort Wright, Ky., showed up for jury duty in a case in which suspect Gregory Sullivan was convicted of bank robbery. Advertisement The Cincinnati Post reports Allison's presence could put the conviction in jeopardy because it was supposed to have been Allison's wife, Carol, who showed up at the courthouse for jury duty. The couple claims it was a simple mistake reading the jury duty notice -- with Carl's name being only one letter different from his wife's name. Even though Allison was not selected as a juror, the defense used one of its limited pre-emptory challenges to dismiss him and, as legal thinking goes, had the challenge not been used a juror more sympathetic to Sullivan might have been selected, the paper reports, leading to a possible acquittal or hung jury. NEWS OF OTHER LIFE FORMS Advertisement A Moroccan publication has accused the Moroccan government of providing unusual assistance to U.S. troops fighting in Iraq. The paper says the government offered 2,000 monkeys trained in detonating land mines. The weekly al-Usbu' al-Siyassi reported Morocco offered the U.S. forces a large number of monkeys, some from Morocco's Atlas Mountains and others imported, to use them for detonating land mines planted by the Iraqis. The publication quoted a highly informed source as saying, "that is not a scientific illusion but a well-known military tactic." TODAY'S SIGN THE WORLD IS ENDING As Joni Mitchell sang in "Big Yellow Taxi" -- "Don't it always seem to go, that you don't know what you've got till it's gone. They paved paradise and put up a parking lot." So it apparently seems to Sihka, a young woman holed up in a tree in Lawrence, Kan., in protest of plans to tear it down to put up a parking lot, the local Journal-World paper reports. "I could stay here forever," Sihka told the paper as she bundled up with blankets, holding a tarp and a bongo drum in a cold rain. The woman was harnessed to the half-dead remains of the tree and she vowed not to come down unless she gets a written promise the disfigured trunk would remain in place. Advertisement "I say more power to her if she wants to get up there and fight for what she believes in," said Megan McHenry, a Kansas University junior. "But we're wondering what will happen when she has to pee." AND FINALLY, TODAY'S UPLIFTING STORY Orthodox Jew A.J. Morgan of Los Angeles is giving $1,500 to help a Muslim fruit-stand vendor, Mohammed Asahad Uddin, who is in a New York City nursing home recovering from a stroke, the New York Post reports. "I want to buy $1,500 of fruit from you and distribute it to the homeless," Morgan, 53, told Uddin, 47, as he gave him the check during a visit to New York. In 2001, it was Uddin who handed over Morgan's lost wallet -- filled with $1,501 -- to a police precinct, the story said. "I'm hoping New Yorkers open their heart to Mohammed," Morgan said. "He's a very precious human being, and how can you forget a guy like that?"
