Ghost plane

 

It looks like a giant, very low plane through the clouds but there was none.

Neasden, centre of the world

The Queen and Michelle Obama forge firm and affectionate friendship: "On Wednesday, and in the rain, the Obamas went to the film set of Harry Potter in Neasden, north west London, as another birthday treat for Sasha." (Telegraph)

Newsdesk

Mother bird brain

Bird uses body as dam to stop drainpipe soaking chicks

"The Mistle Thrush had built her nest on top of a downpipe, blocking the water's passage and causing the gutter to flood. But desperate to protect her young, she puffed herself up to twice her size and sat in the drainpipe to stop the tide of rain water swamping the nest." (Telegraph)

Israeli tourism ads wipe Palestine off the map

A Different Perspective: Wiping Palestine from the map!

"Posters have recently appeared in London Underground tube stations advertising Israel as a tourist destination. The map on the advert depicts Israel as incorporating the West Bank and East Jerusalem, the Gaza Strip and the Golan Heights (see photo below).

Please write to London Underground, the Advertising Standards Agency and CBS Outdoors – the company which manages the poster sites – asking for the removal of these posters, which deliberately deny the existence of Palestine. Contact details are at the bottom of this email." (Via: Lenin's Tomb)

Travel Desk

A dog with three tails

Ridley's Believe It Or Not



Sample: Yellowman

Herbert Ridley presents: A dog with three tails was Spotted in Roundwood Park, London

"Why is this lying bastard lying to me?" (Jeremy Paxman)

Geoff Hoon's home expenses come under spotlight

"Hoon, who is now transport secretary, lived for three-and-a-half years in Admiralty House while the London property he registered as his 'main residence' was let to a private tenant. This allowed the MP for Ashfield in Nottinghamshire to claim around £50,000 in expenses for running his constituency residence, which was entered as his 'second home' with the Commons authorities, the Mail on Sunday reports." (Guardian)

Hoon noun: a flagrant lie, a whopper. Etymology: Willesden Herald, 2004. "Ask no question and I'll tell no hoon."

Newsdesk

Children banned from snow-covered parks

Ridley's Believe it or Not (No. 7)

Children banned from snow-covered parks by health and safety brigade - Telegraph: "Camden Council in North London decided to lock all of its gated parks because the snow has made paths slippery."

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Herbert Ridley

William Burroughs shot my book

Ridley's Believe it or Not (No. 6)

Finbow on Burroughs, Lit Up magazine

"Another of my prize possessions is a copy of Dear Allen: Letters to Allen Ginsberg by William S. Burroughs 1953-57, Full Court Press, New York City, 1982, signed by both Bill and Allen with the addition of a muzzle-fire graze on the front cover - Bill shot it for me." (Steve Finbow)

Brilliant memoir writing

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Herbert Ridley

Forget Jericho

Ridley's Believe it or Not (No. 5)

Exclusive: Hamas 'spent months cutting through Gaza wall'

"...details emerged of the audacious operation that brought down a hated border wall..." (Times Online)

A large part of a 40-foot by 12-kilometer wall has been felled, lifting the siege of Gaza.

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Herbert Ridley

One for Ridley's Believe it or Not?

Letters

Is it me, or has anybody else noticed that Brent East MP Sarah Teather looks exactly like a character from a James Thurber cartoon?

Niall D., Edgware

Well spotted. We will consider that for a future Believe it or Not. We prefer rocks that look like Geronimo, but if we get really desperate... (Ridley)

Very funny, air traffic controllers...

Now stop playing noughts and crosses in the sky.

Ridley's Believe it or Not (No. 4)

By a fantastic coincidence two readers photographed exactly the same phenomenon at almost exactly the same time on Friday (December 7th.)



The sky over Harlesden Road at 4 p.m. this evening [Friday]. (Picture: Patsy, Willesden)



The same spectacle seen over Northolt at the same time. (Picture: A. Mullane)

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Herbert Ridley

Guardian Angel

Ridley's Believe it or Not (No. 3)

Detective Sacked

"...the patron saint of police, Angel Custodio."

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Herbert Ridley

What good are all these saints and guardian angels? They seem to be even more incompetent than their mortal charges. Ed

City relocated

Ridley's "Believe it or Not" (No. 2)

The theme park that passes for Dublin at present is not the real place at all. It's a decoy got up to prevent tourists from disturbing the city, which has been moved brick by brick to a secret location. The real Dublin is a haven for all of those thought to be dead who are still alive—James Joyce, Elvis Presley, Lord Lucan, the immortal O'Connell, Freddie Mercury, John Major, Muffin the Mule, the unsinkable Molly Brown, Shergar, Jessie and Frank James and many more.

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Herbert Ridley

Visiting Mars?

Ridley's "Believe it or not" (No. 1)



There are 30 hotels listed too.

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Herbert Ridley