'Meep' has always been a four-letter word - but now it's taboo in one American school, after a high school principal banned students from saying it in the classroom.

Best known as the noise made by orange-haired lab assistant Beaker from The Muppet Show, 'meep' has now been outlawed at Danvers High School in Massachusetts - after claims the students were repeatedly disrupting class by saying it.

Principal Thomas Murray said the disruption was planned on Facebook.

The school has sent out automated calls to parents informing them of the new anti-meep policy, threatening that any students who continue to meep in class could face suspension.

Murray claims the crackdown was needed after students failed to follow a 'reasonable request' to stop saying 'meep'.

For the original article, go here.

You've probably seen those "Happy California Cows" ads from the California Milk Advisory Board. They advertise that better milk and cheese comes from happy cows, and happy cows come from California.

Thing is, those cows in those ads: they not from California, or at least they won't be soon. The Los Angeles Times reports that the California Milk Advisory Board has decided to outsource their ads, for cost reasons.

As the Times says, in perhaps the best bit of journalism in some time, "Local union officials were cheesed off to learn that the state milk board was farming out TV work to foreign locales."

The report goes on to state, however, that all post-production work will be done in California. One has to wonder if the substitute cow actors will appear as happy as real California cows.

For the original article, go here.

For a YouTube of one of the Cow ads, go here.

Dear Miss Smarty Pants,

Why does the rain in Spain fall mainly in the plane?

Rained Out

Dear Rained Out,
 
You see, the rain was unable to get a bus pass, so it had to go by plane.  Rain in pretty clumsy in general, so it falls pretty much everywhere it goes.
 
Miss Smarty Pants

Dear Miss Smarty Pants,

Why is the air thinner the higher you go? If I get higher, will I get thinner, too?

Dieter

Dear Dieter,
 
You will not get thinner the higher you go,  you will likely get hairier though.  See the things that live near the tops of mountains, such as goats and the Yeti, are very hairy creatures.  I suggest that if you don't want to be covered in hair, you avoid heights.

Miss Smarty Pants

What is Tude even talking about?

Who uses flea spray anymore?

Did you know that Ancient Egyptians covered slaves in donkey's milk to keep the fleas away?

Also, did you know that Diatomaceous Earth can be used to treat ticks on donkeys?



It hasn't worked for me though!



Flea spray? Just the thought of it makes me itch!

 

FLEA SPRAY!?! A good vacuuming usually works for me!

Firefighters told emergency callers to pull the udder one when they begged them to come out to rescue a cow – from the 13th floor of a tower block.

Fire crews eventually answered the call in Chelyabinsk, near the Ural mountains, where they found the high-rise heifer trying to get into a lift.

They led the animal down the stairs.

For the original article, go here!

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Editorial Comment: This must have been a very mooooving experience for the cow!

A driver involved in a hit-and-run incident told a court that he did not see a six-foot tall woman wearing a bright orange rabbit costume riding a pedicab before he ran into her.

34-year-old Edward Cespedes-Rodriguez was convicted of hit-and-run driving in Portland, Oregon's Multnomah County Circuit Court, but was cleared of recklessly endangering another person - after he claimed that he didn't spot the pedicab-riding six-foot-tall orange rabbit because he was fumbling with his mobile phone.

The rabbit in question, pedicab rider Kate Altermatt, told The Oregonian newspaper that she was disappointed by that part of the verdict, given that her pedicab was clearly visible, being equipped with reflectors and a blinking red light. And the fact that she was dressed as an orange bunny.

Altermatt says she found it difficult to get local police to take her initial complaint seriously, possibly because she was still wearing the rabbit suit.

She claims that she smelled alcohol on Cespedes-Rodriguez breath when she confronted him after being hit at around 2am on April 12 this year. However, police were unable to track Cespedes-Rodriguez down in time to administer an alcohol test.

For his part, Cespedes-Rodriguez claimed that he had to flee the scene of the accident as he feared for his safety, claiming that another pedicab driver had smashed his windscreen after the car had hit Altermatt. The judge agreed that the damage to his car suggested it had been deliberately struck by someone.

Cespedes-Rodriguez faces a sentence ranging from probation to a year in jail when sentenced next month.

For the original story, go here.

Dear Miss Smarty Pants,

Who has the better tall tales - teachers or preachers?

Tale Watcher

Dear Tale Watcher,
 
Well preachers do.  They can tell a story about a teacher or anyone really, plus they have God on their side.

Miss Smarty Pants

Dear Miss Smarty Pants,

Someone said you would know. Do you?

Uncertain

Dear Uncertain,
 
Yes.  But that information is classified.  Please read the classified section of the paper for more information.

Miss Smarty Pants