Signed, Sealed, Not Delivered

‘AIRPORT security is a lot tighter these days in the United States and smuggling the severed head of a seal onto a flight is no longer the doddle it once was.

Ask the Colorado man, who was arrested as Logan Airport in Boston for just that offence.

Airport officials discovered the severed head in a small canvas cooler as the man tried to board the plan for Denver and immediately notified state and federal authorities.

The man, who was in his 40s, claims to be a biology professor who found a dead seal on a beach and cut off its head so he could take it home for educational purposes.

The authorities eventually allowed the man to travel – although not with his head.’

Posted: 29th, March 2004 | In: Strange But True | Comment

Sandwich Spread

‘CHARLIE Stubbs is a busy boy: not only is he the only builder in Weatherfield, he’s also set himself up as some sort of charity for desperate, deranged women.

‘I don’t want him!’ ‘Neither do I!’

In fact, so busy is Charlie that he’s had to farm out some of his ‘work’ to his assistant Jason.

Charlie and Jason had gone round to a Mrs Fanshaw’s to do some work on her plumbing, quite literally as it turns out. “I’ve bought you a special biscuit,” she purred to Jason, “and then afterwards I’d like you to come upstairs and take at look at the springs on my bed.”

Jason couldn’t believe his luck and afterwards went straight to The Rovers to brag. “She even offered to make me a sandwich as well,” he said. “She always does,” replied Charlie.

Charlie’s now turned his attention from Bev to her daughter Shelly, pouncing on her in the back room of The Rovers. “We mustn’t,” she told Charlie. “What about me mam?” Surprisingly he didn’t add: “Don’t worry love, I’ve already seen to her.”

Shelly is clearly having a bit of a mental patch (lack of pies?) as not only has she fallen for the world’s smarmiest builder, she’s also got herself demoted from manageress of The Rovers to barmaid after throwing an impromptu and illegal after-hours lock-in.

Fred happened to look out of his window to see the lights in The Rovers blazing and a drunken Penny King and Mike staggering out at midnight.

Fred – who was still waiting for a reply from his marriage proposal to Penny – didn’t take too kindly to this and vented his anger on Shelly who discovered to her cost that hell hath no fury like a butcher scorned.

Fred Elliott has nothing on Karen McDonald, however, when it comes to fury. The woman is a one-person paramilitary terrorist organisation: Bin Laden has nothing on her in terms of death and destruction.

Karen’s latest wave of her Operation Shock and Awe was to destroy baby Amy’s Christening. “You’re for it, Barlow!” she screamed as she stomped up the church aisle, rolling up the sleeves of her cardie. “That’s for tryin’ to wreck me wedding day,” she said, landing a clean right hook onto to Tracy’s face.

Karen’s next move was to kick Liz out of the flat. “It’s either her or me, Steve,” she told her long-suffering husband. “This flat’s not big enough for the both of you,” sighed Steve to his mum. “This planet’s not big enough for the both of us,” sneered Liz before packing her bags.

Given the amount of hairpieces the two are currently sporting, she’s not far wrong.

But there’s a new pretender to Karen’s crown in the shape of Cilla Brown, Les’ latest squeeze and erstwhile mother to Fizz and Courtney. Cilla is back from an extended stay with a ‘friend’ and, upon discovering that Les had been seen drinking with Janice, she decided to act.

She stormed round to Janice’s flat and launched herself at her like a little ginger fur-ball. “You leave my man alone,” she screeched while pulling out chunks of Janice’s hair.

Janice can give as good as she gets, however, and, as a Battersby, loves nothing better than a good old-fashioned brawl. Les came round to try and break the pair up. “I can’t believe yer fightin’ over me!” he said.

Nor can sixteen million other people, Les.’

Posted: 29th, March 2004 | In: Strange But True | Comment

Cop That

‘MOHAMMED Sami was a big name in the Luxor crime scene. So when Egyptian authorities arrested him in 2000, they were delighted. The drugs dealer was to stand trial and the police were to have their day in court.

But on the eve of the trial date, Sami escaped. Bowed, the police hatched a plot: one of them would pretend to be the accused and so cover up their error.

And it would have worked had a defendant who knew the real villain not spotted the deception. The result is that seven policemen have now been jailed for six months for an attempt to impersonate a suspect at a trial.

Sami was eventually recaptured and finally sentenced to 10 years in prison.’

Posted: 26th, March 2004 | In: Strange But True | Comment

Life Cycle

‘WHAT’S your passion? For one man in Australia it was bicycles.

Police in that fair land found 1,000 bicycles at the home of a man in Geelong, Melbourne, who died while trying to steal a bicycle last week.

Police superintendent Steve Barber said the man, who was in his 60s, liked bikes and ‘had a habit of buying bicycles as well’.

Police worked tirelessly to clear the house of all the bikes. They haven’t said how the man died.’

Posted: 25th, March 2004 | In: Strange But True | Comment

Missionary Position

‘AH, the Swedes and their liberal attitudes to sex.

Not for them saucy postcards and curtain twitching – not when they can watch hard-core porn with their breakfast cereal and the drapes are never drawn.

But a group of Swedish teachers took things too far when they went with a group of students to Kenya.

Having equipped the teenagers with a video camera, the teachers then went off into the centre of Mombassa on a fact-finding mission – to a brothel.

The students filmed the entire thing and upon their return to Sweden, showed the footage to their headmaster, but he refused to act.

‘We went to Kenya to help people and then our teachers exploited them. It was disgusting.’

Although, nothing any Swedish teenager had not seen before…’

Posted: 24th, March 2004 | In: Strange But True | Comment

Dying On Stage

‘HERE’S an acting job even Ben Affleck could do, and do well.

A theatre troupe, known as 1157 and based in east London, is auditioning for the part of a corpse in its new production.

The play is intended to be a serious examination about the taboos surrounding death and the actor must agree to be dead by the time the show premiers in mid-May.

‘The body will not necessarily be touched by the actors at all,’ Jo Dagless, one of the group’s artistic directors says.

‘But all those details would be worked out in advance with the donor and their family. It is an element of the show that we think is important to help us to dispel some of the mysteries that surround death.”

Posted: 23rd, March 2004 | In: Strange But True | Comment

Mean Feet

‘DAEGAN Goodman smells. The 10-year-old from Montpelier, Vermont, absolutely stinks. For Goodman has the smelliest feet in America, and possibly the universe.

The schoolboy saw off the challenge of eight other stinkers to win the annual Rotten Sneaker Contest.

His shoes, and that of his agonists, were judged on overall condition, but it is the smell that scores the big points.

“The stench sometimes stays with me for days,” says George Aldrich, a judge and Nasa scent expert.

And the recipe for success? As Goodman says: “ I just wear ‘em, play sports, sweat in ’em.”’

Posted: 22nd, March 2004 | In: Strange But True | Comment

Homer Erotica

‘HOMER Simpson’s cartoon wife Marge is being given a sexy makeover to appear in a photoshoot for men’s mag Maxim. For the cover shot, she will pose provocatively in a wet, low-cut dress while scrubbing the floor.

On the inside pages, she will change her trademark hairstyle and let her blue hair hang down as she waits for Homer in bed.

Maxim editor-in-chief Keith Blanchard says the front cover – of which a third will feature Marge, two thirds the equally unreal Paris Hilton – is a ‘radical departure for a men’s magazine’.

The team behind The Simpsons have helped to create the sketches for the special forthcoming issue – and Mr Blanchard gushes: ‘She’s the sexiest mama in all of ‘toon town, especially that sexy voice. Aarrghh!”

Posted: 19th, March 2004 | In: Strange But True | Comment

The Honeymoon’s Over

‘THEY say the first year of marriage is the hardest; for Steve he’ll be lucky to get through the first month. The ‘happy’ couple returned to find a mountain of unpaid bills, Liz having taken up residence on their couch and Tracy determined to make their lives a misery.

Tracy prepares to part with her teeth

Karen is feeling desperately insecure, knowing that “Steve’s brat” is now living across the road. In a bizarre bid to improve her self-esteem, she’s had black nylon hair extensions put in so she now resembles Ozzy Osbourne.

Indeed, life with the McDonalds is getting very similar to the Osbournes. “You’re never to see your bastard kid again,” screamed Karen to Steve, holding a fag an inch away from his face. “I’ll break your bastard neck if you do.”

Liz, always known for her tact and diplomacy, has decided to become best friends with Tracy. “I think it’s important that Amy gets to know her gran,” said Tracy innocently. And of course the fact that asking Liz to be a godmother is going to send Karen into apoplexy is purely coincidental.

Tracy has also managed to persuade Steve to give her fifty pounds a week in child support – on the understanding that she doesn’t tell Karen. You’d think Steve would have been around mental women long enough to realise that the chances of Tracy keeping her mouth shut are non-existent.

To add to the fun, Keiran has just let slip that Tracy tried to cancel Karen’s wedding. “Just you wait, Tracy Barlow,” muttered Karen into her pint. “You’re not going to know what’s hit you.” Oh, I think she will – that’ll be Karen’s fist.

Another dangerously unstable woman on the loose at the moment is Sally Webster. Sally’s daughter Rosie has decided that she’s going to be the next J-Lo. And unfortunately she’s got about as much talent.

Rosie had landed a part in the school production of ‘Grease’, which Ken was to review for the local paper. “I felt I had to be honest,” Ken said, when confronted by a furious Sally. “She just wasn’t very good.”

Being the good stage mum that she’s become, however, Sally’s not going to let a little thing like talent stand in the way between her daughter and stardom. And to be fair to her, when she looks around at some of the acting on the Street, who can blame her?

Which leads us nicely on to Nick, who’s finally woken up to the fact that his mother is one step away from sewing name labels into his pants and has moved out and in with Maria.

“I can’t stand by and watch ‘im throw his life away,” cried Wail to her mother. “I don’t think you’ve got much choice my love,” replied Audrey.

Gail should cheer up, however, as she’ll soon have someone else’s life to ruin when her new grandchild is born. Sarah Lou and Todd have proudly announced that they’re to have a boy in a couple of months.

Unfortunately for the Platt family, Todd’s about to have a boy himself soon…in the shape of his new gay mate Carl.’

Posted: 19th, March 2004 | In: Strange But True | Comment

Unreal Deal

‘JUST because he shares a surname with the famous German playwright, it does not mean that Davaugn Goethe inherited any of his namesake’s brains.

Indeed, it appears that the 17-year-old failed to inherit any brains at all.

The Connecticut teenager was arrested after flagging down an unmarked police car, jumping into the back seat and trying to sell drugs to the occupants.

That may not sound that stupid until you learn that the two officers inside the car both had the word ‘Police’ on their jackets.

Goethe apparently even told the two officers: “You guys look like cops.”

If you wonder what undercover cops are doing wearing jackets with ‘Police’ on them, a spokesman explained that the officers were wearing raid jackets because they were looking for fugitives and didn’t want to be mistaken for anything but police officers.’

Posted: 18th, March 2004 | In: Strange But True | Comment

Male Fraud

‘PRESIDENT George Bush marked International Women’s Week by paying tribute to a human rights protestor imprisoned by Colonel Gadaffi’s regime two years ago.

‘Earlier today,” he told White House reporters, “the Libyan government released Fathi Jahmi. She’s a local government official who was imprisoned in 2002 for advocating free speech and democracy.’

She is also, unfortunately for President Bush, a he.

‘Definitely male,’ said Amnesty International’s Alistair Hodgett of Jahmi, a 62-year-old civil engineer sentenced to five years in jail after speaking out for a constitution and pluralism.’

Posted: 17th, March 2004 | In: Strange But True | Comment

Moore The Merrier

‘ARSENAL fan John Moore stands to win £100,000 if his grandson Bobby Moore becomes captain of the England football team before he is 25.

The 75-year-old has put a £20 bet at odds of 5,000-1 on the four-month-old emulating the 1966 World Cup-winning captain.

‘I’ve given the betting slip to his dad – also called Robert,” says the Great Yarmouth pensioner. “It’s a great incentive for young Bobby to become a star.”

William Hill spokesman Graham Sharpe said: ‘It’s time England found another Bobby Moore to lead us to glory. We’ll be delighted to pay out if little Bobby pulls it off.”

Posted: 16th, March 2004 | In: Strange But True | Comment

Root Cause

‘WHEN Australian Lee Collinson was pulled over by police for driving without a licence, he needed to come up with a good excuse fast. And he did.

He told cops that he was on an urgent mercy mission. “My cousin was about to (have sex with) this girl,” he said, “and he needed his bum bag because it had his condoms in it.’

Magistrate David Loadman, fining Collinson $100, said: ‘Carrying condoms to a mate who is in desperate need must be something much better than the good Samaritan ever did. I cannot imagine the scene. This woman, about to embrace passionately, is waiting for the condom arrival. Bizarre in the extreme. When the Poms ask Australians to define mateship, your circumstances could serve as a very good example.’

After the verdict, 24-year-old Collinson, of Darwin, said: ‘I don’t regret my actions and I would do it again. My cousin is like a brother to me. And at least he was practising safe sex. He was being responsible. He got the condoms and I think he had a good night.”

Posted: 15th, March 2004 | In: Strange But True | Comment

In The Nick Of Time

‘WEATHERFIELD’S serial proposer is at it again: Fred Elliott has found a new victim in the shape of Penny King.

This wasn’t the kind of threesome Maria had been expecting

Penny is the wealthy widow of sweatshop baron Vernon and the one-time mistress of Mike Baldwin. Now that she’s single (and has a pulse), it was inevitable that Fred would get round to proposing marriage to her. Penny was quite taken aback (clearly not knowing our favourite butcher very well) and said that she’d think about it.

When Mike found out, he was amused, “don’t take it personally,” he told her. “He can’t help himself.” Mike changed his tune, however when he realised that Penny may be seriously considering it. “I’m sick of being lonely, Mike,” she told him.

“It doesn’t have to be that way,” he told her, pulling up a stool to whisper into her ear before whisking her back to his flat. The next morning however, poor Penny discovered that Mike’s intentions towards her may not have been strictly honourable.

“I’m going to have to rush yer,” he told her. “I’m playing golf with the boys. See you sometime next week?”

Things may be looking up for Fred; he might not have to get his money back at H Samuel’s this time after all.

The path of true love is also looking less than smooth for Nick and Maria. Not surprisingly, Maria is finding living with Gail rather difficult. Gail is determined to split the couple up.

“Nick should be out playing the field,” the deranged one told Audrey. “Not tied to a back street hairdresser” – which surely is exactly what Gail’s mother is? And of course, given Gail’s recent marriage to a serial killer, she’s the perfect person to give relationship advice.

Gail had persuaded Nick to spend all his savings on a sports car – savings that were supposed to be going towards a flat deposit. It was the last straw for Maria and she packed her bags and left.

“I ‘ope you to will be very happy together,” she shouted before slamming the door. Maria’s wrong, however, there is someone Nick loves more than his mum and that’s the face he sees in the mirror about 300 times a day.

Nick had the smug smile (wonder where he inherited that) wiped off his face this week though when Mike sacked him from Underworld.

Mike had already caught Nick applying for another job – at Penny King’s factory no less – but had decided that it showed character, so gave him another chance. But Mike took the news that Nick had managed to burn down his factory slightly less well.

In a bid to assert this authority, Nick had decided to ban the factory girls from smoking. Janice didn’t take this terribly well. “I’ll die without me fags!” she screeched without a trace of irony. So when Nick popped out to try and patch things up with Maria, Janice took the opportunity to sneak in a crafty fag in the stock room.

Unfortunately Harry decided to lock the door and in a panic Janice stubbed her cigarette out in a very Primary school manner – actually Primary school kids do a better job. Within seconds, the room was ablaze, fuelled by the amount of quality bri-nylon stock in there.

When he realised that Janice was missing from the roll call, Nick ran in to save her. “I can’t believe what you did for me,” a humble Janice told Nick from hospital. “You saved my life. You could have died.”

Indeed – what was he thinking? Nick is at least eighty percent plywood: one spark could have finished him off.’

Posted: 14th, March 2004 | In: Strange But True | Comment

One In A Million

‘ALICE Regina Pike, 35, from Georgia, USA, wanted the American dream. Only having failed to earn enough money for the massive car, the yacht and the surgically-enhanced buttocks, she decided to make some in another way.

Clutching her fake million-dollar note she strode into the Wal-Mart store in Covington ready for some retail therapy. But when she came to pay for $1,671.55 (£915) worth of items, the cashier refused her note. Staff also refused to hand over $998,328.45 (£547,059) in change.

Assistant Police Chief Almond Turner said Pike claimed she believed the notes were real and said they were a gift from her husband.’

Posted: 12th, March 2004 | In: Strange But True | Comment

Half-Cocked

‘RUSSIA is a cold place and men look for love wherever they can get it, but a Russian man has gone almost too far in the search for romance.

The unnamed man has been told he will have a bent penis for the rest of his life after trapping it in a padlock.

Moscow firemen freed the 20-year-old using cold water, grease and bolt cutters after a sex game went wrong.

A doctor at the hospital treating the lovelorn so-and-so says: ‘His penis will be bent to one side but it will still function.”

Posted: 11th, March 2004 | In: Strange But True | Comment

Flash Harry

‘A 34-year-old man who exposed himself to a woman in Bielefeld, Germany, has been caught.

The shocked woman’s shouts were heard by officers at a nearby police patrol.

As they pulled up near the man he tried to run off, but was tripped up by his falling trousers. He had forgotten to zip up before running away.

He has now been charged with indecent exposure.’

Posted: 10th, March 2004 | In: Strange But True | Comment

Wing And A Prayer

‘STAR Trek fan Celeste Ready was the Eternal Ascent Society’s (EAS) first customer, when she released her mother Myrna Clemons’ ashes in a yellow, five-foot helium balloon.

EAS is offering Americans the chance to have their deceased loved ones cremated, put inside a giant balloon and floated off into space.

Ms Ready says her mother had always wanted to go up into space.

‘It was really amazing,’ she says, ‘The day was overcast. It was weird. When we got [to the park], the sky went blue, the clouds opened up, and we let her go. And as soon as we let her go, the clouds came back.’

The latex balloon is biodegradable. At an altitude of around 30,000 feet, the temperature reaches 40 degrees below zero, the balloon freezes, then fractures, scattering the ashes into the winds, and onto the heads of those who still walk the earth.’

Posted: 9th, March 2004 | In: Strange But True | Comment

Dog Of War

‘AN American traffic cop got more than he bargained for when he pulled over a lorry driver.

The officer, a deputy sheriff from Michagan, is now recovering in hospital having been left bruised and batted after the driver of the vehicle attacked him…with his pet poodle.

The lorry had rammed the police vehicle, forcing it around 250ft up the highway before the driver leapt from his cab and brandished a French poodle.

The fight ended when police fired tear gas at the driver, who now faces charges of attempted murder and cruelty to animals.’

Posted: 8th, March 2004 | In: Strange But True | Comment

It’s Pissing Down

‘IT’S one thing to walk outside and find it raining cats and dogs, it’s quite another to be splattered by human excrement from above.

That’s what happened to the Jordan family in Ohio – but no-one is quite sure where the mess came from.

Health experts, who are now investigating the incident in Chesterville, Morrow County, think it was the result of a passing plane. But the Federal Aviation Administration says the house is not under any flight path and reckons it must have come from a herd of geese.

Judy Jordan says it couldn’t have been a prank either. ‘The wind was blowing that day, and it had to have come straight down,” she said. “It couldn’t have been thrown at the house, the way it was hit. The only possible thing I think it could possibly come from would be an airplane.”

Posted: 5th, March 2004 | In: Strange But True | Comment

Peacock And Hen

‘IT wasn’t exactly Romeo and Juliet (more like George and Mildred), but the Street’s most love-struck pair finally got together – warming the cockles of millions of old ladies’ hearts across the country.

Ashley and Claire were meant to be together

Claire, Ashley’s nanny, had been offered another job with a car and trip to Florida thrown in. “I think you should take it,” Ashley told her. “She can offer you things that I can’t.” Well, it’s unlikely that she could offer Claire the one thing that she wanted: a big tongue sarnie.

“I can’t believe you’re letting her go – I said I can’t believe it,” Fred told his son in his typical forthright (and repetitive) manner. “You two need your heads banging together.”

In the end, however, it was Audrey who persuaded Ashley to follow his heart. “Maxine’s gone, lovey, and she’s never going to come back” – however much she begs producers to take her back once her panto work dries up.

Claire and Ashley shared their first kiss in his butcher’s shop: surrounded by pounds of dead flesh. Very romantic.

They were surrounded by yet more dead flesh the next day, when Norris and Audrey came up to them to congratulate them. “I hope you’ll be very happy, “ Norris wittered, already mentally picking out his wedding hat.

There’s more romance coming to Weatherfield soon when Todd and Karl get together. Todd’s just found out that Karl’s gay and he’s doing his best to avoid him: methinks the lady doeth protest too much.

“I’m not a gayer!” Todd shouted at him when they conveniently got stuck in a lift together, although in the next breath Todd was telling him how he’d kissed his girlfriend’s brother.

Elsewhere on The Street, mental Maya has finally got Dev to propose to her, firstly by threatening to kill him in a car crash and then by refusing to sleep with him.

Instead of having committed to the nearest mental institution, Dev decided that this was the woman he wanted to spend the rest of his life with. Maya excitedly called up her mother to tell her the news. “How tall is he dear?” was the only question her mother asked. It’s clear where Maya gets her mentalness from.

And on the subject of freakish women, according to the tabloids, in a ‘shocking’ new storyline, Cilla is set to be unmasked as a prostitute: she sleeps with someone she owes money to and Fizz reveals that it isn’t the first time she’s done it.

Surely no one in Weatherfield can be shocked to discover that the a woman who voluntarily moves in with Les Battersby has no values or shame whatsoever.’

Posted: 5th, March 2004 | In: Strange But True | Comment

The Play’s The Thing

‘IT’S so difficult in these days of audience participation to know what’s part of the play and what’s not – so we can forgive the Czech audience who cheered when a fan jumped on stage during a performance of Marian Palla’s I Washed Again In Vain and tried to rip the lead actress’s clothes off.

We can also understand why they cheered even louder as another actor tried to help prise the 35-year-old man off Jitka Joskova.

But what we cannot quite understand is why the man behaved as he did in the first place, as apparently Joskova was actually in the middle of performing a striptease at the time.

The overeager theatre-goer later turned up backstage at the Slovacke Theatre in Uherske Hradiste with flowers to apologise for his behaviour.

Joskova, who accepted the man’s apology, said: ‘He was sitting in the front row and then he went wild. He grabbed me and pulled me to him before starting to undress me.

‘The audience were having a great time because they thought it was part of the play.”

Posted: 4th, March 2004 | In: Strange But True | Comment

Love Is…

‘ANY bride who was eight months pregnant when she was ditched four days before her wedding by text message from her gutless fiancé would be forgiven for feeling a little sorry for herself and maybe even shedding a tear or two.

Not Alison Innes, of Arbroath in Scotland. She used the time more profitably than that and managed to find a new fiancé – 18-year-old ex-boyfriend Daniel Innes – to take the place of the pathetic Peter Knight.

Unemployed Daniel, who had gone out with Alison, 20, for four months last year, had heard of her plight and immediately volunteered his services as a replacement.

It took her just 48 hours to decide to go ahead and marry unemployed Daniel. Invitations were changed and a different size kilt ordered.

This is not the first time the course of true love has proved a bit bumpy for Alison – last year she found her first husband, 21-year-old George Greenhowe, in bed with her 44-year-old mum Pat, but forgave them enough to appear as a bridesmaid at their wedding.

As for the father of the unborn child, Alison isn’t quite sure. It could be Mr Knight, it could be Daniel Innes…or it could be his brother John.’

Posted: 3rd, March 2004 | In: Strange But True | Comment

Training Day

‘IOWA paramedic Scott Kirkhart has been fired after sticking his fingers into the mouth and up the nose of a corpse he was taking to the morgue in order to freak out a watching security officer.

He also allegedly grabbed the woman’s breast, saying: “Honk, honk.”

Mr Kirkhart, of Manson, was sacked by Trinity Regional Medical Centre, despite arguing that touching a corpse was not unusual in training practices.

However, an Iowa judge disagreed, saying he was not in training at the time and that a reasonable person would know that it is inappropriate to desecrate the body.’

Posted: 2nd, March 2004 | In: Strange But True | Comment

Hirsute’s You, Sir

‘TURKMENISTAN has a number of strange laws, a ban on ballet and a tax on foreigners marrying its women being among them. But the latest is a new law that bans men from having unkempt hair either in the form of long hair, beards or moustaches.

The country’s eccentric president Saparmurat Niyazov says such hair gives outsiders the ‘wrong impression’ of the country and is ‘unhygienic’.

The ruling also applies to foreigners and barbers are being set up at airports and border crossings to make sure it is adhered to.

One imagines that ZZ Top will not be in a hurry to tour anytime soon.’

Posted: 1st, March 2004 | In: Strange But True | Comment