Nominee, Best Lede Ever. Chicken fat clogged a major traffic artery Tuesday, a day after a leaky truck left a stinky, slippery trail along a one-mile stretch of Interstate 20.
The vacuum truck crossed the Ouachita River before it was pulled over about 3:30 p.m. Monday.
The truck's owner, Dixie Hydro-vac Specialist Co., an industrial cleaning company from West Monroe, tried to clean up the mess with a chemical, but then it started to rain, said John Kelly, district administrator for the state Department of Transportation and Development.
Crews spread sand over the gunk, which was mainly in one eastbound lane, and worked Tuesday to scoop up the mess and keep it from oozing farther on the concrete bridge deck, Kelly said. Traffic was able to use the second lane.
"The stench was overpowering," Kelly said
He said the crews couldn't just turn fire hoses on it because that would have sent the smelly pollution straight into the river. The time for finishing the cleanup depended on whether it rained again, he said.
A second truck was brought in to transport the remaining fat. The spill was considered noxious but not toxic, according to a hazardous materials officer, Monroe fire officials said. It wasn't immediately clear where the fat originated.
#2
Insert "Why did the chicken cross the road?" joke here.
Posted by: Mike ||
03/13/2007 22:19 Comments ||
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#3
OK, #2 Mike -
To prove to the 'possum it could be done. ;-p
[For our non-American readers, opossums are standard road-kill on most American roads. Skunks are next. At least in the Eastern U.S.; dunno about the West.]
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
03/13/2007 22:45 Comments ||
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State wildlife officials have confiscated an alligator that had been living in a Vermont home for seven years. The 6-foot-4-inch American alligator, estimated to be 17 years old, was seized by the Vermont Department of Fish and Wildlife last Wednesday and was to be moved to a proper environment. "This animal could have harmed a child, not to mention the people who were taking care of it," said Michael Ralbovsky of Rainforest Reptiles of Boston, who helped Vermont agents seize the alligator.
Ralbovsky said the alligator, which was kept in a wood and glass enclosure in the home's basement, was well taken care of, but at 125 pounds, was small for its age.
"Honey? Did you remember to feed the alligator?"
"Oh, darn! I forgot!"
"Again?"
Posted by: Fred ||
03/13/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
I guess it was too late to flush the animal down the toilet.
Posted by: Eric Jablow ||
03/13/2007 0:40 Comments ||
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#2
At over 6 foot, smallness of size has nuthin to do agz sheer jaw- and tail-power.
Rod Kukurudz and his family - from left, Noa, 4, wife Sandrine and Salome, 9 - walk along the beach in Surfside. Kukurudz cites 'the general hostility of Muslims in France toward Jews as his reason for relocating to Florida. Rod Kukurudz decided to uproot his family from a comfortable life in France to Surfside when his then 16-year-old daughter, Audrey, came home one night in 2005 -- upset and fearful. ''Dad,'' she told him, ''now even if it's hot I have to wear a scarf to hide my Star of David,'' while riding the Paris Metro.
French Jews living in South Florida told The Miami Herald that hostility from Islamic militants in France after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the United States spurred them to leave. Departures surged after last year's abduction and death of Ilan Halimi in France. The 23-year-old Halimi, a French Jew of Moroccan parents, was kidnapped Jan. 21, 2006, by a gang of youths calling themselves the ``Barbarians.''
''The atmosphere created by that episode, plus other incidents and the general hostility of Muslims in France toward Jews, is what's behind my decision to leave,'' said Kukurudz, who now lives with his wife and their three daughters, including Audrey, in Surfside.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/13/2007 00:00 ||
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Any comment needed?
Still want to get to Normandy (hear tell grandparents there have edumuhcated their offspring, people are very pro-American - besides, I like calvados), see the beaches and cemetery.
Would love to luxuriate in the wine country of Bordeaux, Rhone valley, Dordogne ....
But as I haven't yet been to Australia, and many other places besides, don't see having time for Fwahnce any time soon.
I don't see it happening but what the hell, we could always use another official "minority" or two.
Sometimes I think I'm the only person at the University of Kentcky that actually has to pay for an education.
#4
Critics say new nuclear plants are not needed if energy conservation is implemented.
"And if frogs had wings, they wouldn't bump their butts hopping!"
Shoot me now. This field was invented to give morons something to do. Maybe they like giving their money to terrorists, I don't know. But I'll bet a dollar to a dog turd more people are suffering, more environmental damage is being done, and more money is going into combating security concerns related to terrorists with money than will ever be caused by modern nuclear technology being used to generate power. I'd like to see an economy without power. Oh wait, I guess I've seen the aerial pix of North Korea. Nevermind.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Chicken fat clogged a major traffic artery Tuesday, a day after a leaky truck left a stinky, slippery trail along a one-mile stretch of Interstate 20.
State wildlife officials have confiscated an alligator that had been living in a Vermont home for seven years. The 6-foot-4-inch American alligator, estimated to be 17 years old, was seized by the Vermont Department of Fish and Wildlife last Wednesday and was to be moved to a proper environment. "This animal could have harmed a child, not to mention the people who were taking care of it," said Michael Ralbovsky of Rainforest Reptiles of Boston, who helped Vermont agents seize the alligator. 
Rod Kukurudz and his family - from left, Noa, 4, wife Sandrine and Salome, 9 - walk along the beach in Surfside. Kukurudz cites 'the general hostility of Muslims in France toward Jews as his reason for relocating to Florida. Rod Kukurudz decided to uproot his family from a comfortable life in France to Surfside when his then 16-year-old daughter, Audrey, came home one night in 2005 -- upset and fearful. ''Dad,'' she told him, ''now even if it's hot I have to wear a scarf to hide my Star of David,'' while riding the Paris Metro.
