Watercooler Stories

Missing wallet found on Great Barrier Reef

CAIRNS, Australia, March 27 (UPI) -- A British backpacker in Australia got lucky when a scuba diver found his missing wallet 30 feet down on the Great Barrier Reef.

Dan McShee, a resident of St. Breward in Cornwall, thought the wallet went missing at his Cairns hostel but decided he must have lost it during a boat trip to the reef.

"Two days after the boat trip, he was sitting down to dinner at the hostel when the manager came in," his father, Paddy, told The Independent. "He said 'Is Dan McShee here?' and 'Have you lost your wallet?'"

McShee only realized his wallet was missing when he tried to pay for a round of drinks at a bar in Cairns.

Short home visit for Scotland 1st minister

EDINBURGH, Scotland, March 27 (UPI) -- Scotland's first minister is making a brief stop in his native country before taking off on another foreign trip.

Jack McConnell recently returned from nine days in Australia and China, Scotland on Sunday reported. In a few days, he'll take off for the United States for a week's visit to celebrate Tartan Week.

The newspaper's story was headlined: "'Junket Jack' visits Scotland on his round the world trip."

Scotland on Sunday said McConnell's U.S. trip is his fourth since becoming first minister, and that he has spent more time in the United States than British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who has been in office four years longer.

While McConnell is on the other side of the Atlantic on what is presumably a working trip, his deputy, Nicol Stephen, will be vacationing abroad with his family.

"This is typical of Nicol," said one member of the Scottish Parliament. "You would have thought that the deputy would stay around when the leader is away, but he doesn't think like that."

Scottish ferry may be sailing into history

GLENELG, Scotland, March 27 (UPI) -- A remote village in the Scottish highlands fears that if it loses its ferry over the sea to Skye, its own doom is near.

The Isle of Skye Ferry Community Interest Company, which is trying to buy the ferry and keep it operating, has raised 90,000 pounds ($158,000) and needs 60,000 pounds more. The ferry, which carries only six cars at a time, connects Glenelg, population 240, with Kylerhea on Skye. The service has been operating since the days when Dr. Johnson and James Boswell were touring the Hebrides.

"We used to have a ferry, inn, candleworks and Pictish brochs (round castle towers) to bring people in," Jennifer Frances, a spokesman for the company, told The Scotsman. "The ferry may close, the inn is up for sale, and the candleworks has burnt down. We are losing all our reasons for people to divert off the main road."

The Glenachulish -- the last turntable ferry still in operation in the world -- has appeared in numerous ads for whisky and cars.

Roddy MacLeod, who has operated the service for 15 years, said he has built up another year-round business and can no longer continue with a seasonal one.

Comic books feature the lives of saints

LONDON, March 27 (UPI) -- Instead of Superman or other superheroes, a series of comic books will feature the lives saints in an effort to attract British youth to the church.

Arcadius Press, an U.S. publishing company, is set to offer the comic books in Britain later this year for a $12 subscription for 48 comic books a year, reported the Sunday Telegraph.

St. Francis of Assisi -- the 13th century monk who became the Roman Catholic patron saint of animals and the environment -- is portrayed as a chisel-jawed man with flowing chestnut-brown locks, rippling muscles and a penchant for "endless parties."

While U.S. Protestants have long given children Biblical stories in comic book fashion, the lives of the saints have previously been recorded in Catholic encyclopedias or dryly written literature, the newspaper said.