Buy This Scottish Pub That Promises Views of the Loch Ness Monster
FOR SALE: Charming Scottish pub. Original flooring. Stunning views of the lake, sunsets, and of mythical creatures that have escaped detection for 1,400 years.
Now’s your chance to own an historic pub in Scotland known for providing one of the best places to see the Loch Ness monster.
The owners of the Dores Inn have put the successful pub on the market.
The pub’s reputation precedes it. Lonely Planet lists it as a “Top Choice” for “Things to do in Loch Ness.” One of the features Lonely Planet touts, in addition to Dores’ wonderful seafood platter, is the dedicated monster-spotting point Dores has in its garden.
In fact, there’s a full-time Loch Ness Monster hunter who lives in a mobile home in the pub’s parking lot so he can seek out the elusive Monster `round-the-clock (he claims to have seen the Monster once in 23 years, but he didn’t have his camera. Of course).
The pub’s is listed for $1.2 million, a potentially sound investment as it reportedly rakes in $1.4 million annually. More than that, it represents a dream come true for any potential buyer who fantasizes about living in the Scottish countryside. Imagine the promotional possibilities of a pub located so close to the Loch Ness Monster: Nessie souvenirs; Nessie mascots (for the kids); even Nessie-themed drink specials — you’ll almost certainly get some Loch Ness Monster sightings on”Monster Shot Night.” - Yahoo
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U.S. Open Doubles Champs Bob And Mike Bryan On Their 'Freaky Twin' Telepathy
As twins, Bob and Mike Bryan — one of the most successful doubles teams in tennis history — share a unique bond. On the court, it works out well: the pair won their 100th career tournament title at the U.S. Open this weekend.
Off the court, what they call their "freaky twin telepathy" manifests itself in other ways. Unlike most doubles teams, they don't talk much in between points, only using code words ("burgy" is code to serve the ball wide, while "chucky" means to keep the serve on the T, or the inside). The freakiest example of their twin-ness, however, came while they were shopping.
"One time, he was in Miami and I was in California and we went couch shopping on the same day and bought the same exact couch. At the same store and we didn't even communicate," Mike said. "Bob calls me later in the day and is like 'Hey dude, I bought this awesome couch.' I'm like 'Dude I bought a couch.' He's like Facetiming me, showing me pictures of the couch and I was like 'That's the same exact couch I just got.' You can't explain that stuff."
That strange bond has helped them stay ahead of their doubles competition even at age 35, considered old in tennis circles. The pair's plan is to compete professionally until the Summer Olympics in Rio in 2016 and retire afterward. - THP
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Never forget....
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Dead lion found in restaurant freezer
The remains of an adult male lion were found stuffed inside a freezer by an environmental health officer.
Ian Brightmore of Chichester District Council in west Sussex had been visiting the eating establishment, which has not been named, to determine if it was following adequate food safety practices.
He discovered the cat in a chest freezer that was normally used to store food that would be later served to customers. Remarkably the restaurant was allowed to continue operating because the frozen feline was the only health code violation that he had found there.
It turned out that the lion had been provided by a local zoo to help feed the owner's dogs.
"I came across a dead lion in a freezer," said Brightmore. "The food establishment was near a zoo and the owner kept pack hounds so it was food for them. Because the lion was kept in a place where food for human consumption was stored, of course we had to take action." Read more at Express
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Perak the Springer
Some reports insisted that Pérák had been seen jumping right over speeding trains and even leaping across the widest point of the Vitava river valley, flying through the air "like a shuttlecock" before disappearing into the night with an unearthly, shrieking whistle. Anti-Nazi graffiti attributed to Pérák began to appear throughout the city, often painted in prominent but seemingly inaccessible spots.
Fearing an encounter with the phantom mystery-man, factory workers became reluctant to undertake night shifts, slowing the production of munitions for the German war machine. Gradually, in an environment of paranoia and suspicion of official media, the "grapevine" transformed the Spring-man into a symbol of Czech resistance and sabotage against the Nazi regime. These stories spread inexorably through outlying towns and rural villages, gaining in magnitude and momentum.
While most people accepted that Pérák was simply a manifestation of Czech fear and resentment against the Nazi invaders - a product of the collective imagination - some insisted that he was a real person, perhaps a defiantly patriotic artist or circus acrobat, perhaps a British paratrooper or American secret agent. Still others believed that he was a ghost.
Shortly after the liberation of Prague by Russian forces in May of 1945, Czech cartoonists Jiří Brdečka and Jiří Trnka produced the 14-minute animated film Pérák a SS ("Springman and the SS"). This innovative, surrealistic film portrays Pérák as a heroic black-clad chimney sweep equipped with spring shoes, defying both the Gestapo and a Hitler-wannabe collaborator:
As pop-culture representations of Pérák were discouraged under the new communist regime in Czechoslovakia, the Springer became the subject of academic curiosity. In his 1960s case-study of Pérák as urban folklore, ethnographer Dr. Miloš Pulec discovered that a "leaping ghost" tradition pre-dated the German occupation of Prague, extending at least as far back as the 1920s and possibly into the 19th century.
Curiously, this tradition was first associated with a series of hoaxes rumored to have been carried out by vergers of the Roman Catholic church in northwestern Bohemia. Concerned by an "outbreak of atheism" among mining communities, some vergers were said to have disguised themselves as "jumping devils", or even to have employed "magic lantern" projections of flying demons so as to scare their parishioners into piety and obedience.
Directly paralleling the pop-culture evolution of the mysterious Spring Heeled Jack from urban legend to quasi-superhero, author Jan Weiss wrote the short story Pérový muž ("The Spring-Man", 1961), portraying Pérák as a costumed superhero:
2008 saw the publication of author Petr Stančík's magical realist novel Pérák,connecting the Springer with Masonic conspiracies and with the real-life assassination of Nazi leader Reinhard Heydrich by Czech resistance fighters. The novel also included science fiction elements, including a top-secret Nazi flying saucer piloted by alcoholic Buddhist monks.
More recently, Pérák has made his way to the stage in a 2012 production by the Czech avant-garde theater company, VOSTO5. Images at Observation Deck
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