Stan Bowes from DIggle has uncovered some more interesting and entertaining strange but true facts for us – you just couldn’t make them up
TONY HIGGINS, of Redditch, Worcestershire, was sentenced to serve a curfew for a minor offence. The detail was that he stay in his home during hours of darkness.
To ensure he didn’t stray, he was fitted with an electronic tag that informed the probationary service when he was not at home. However, it didn’t affect his social life as a regular at his local pub. When police fitted the tag they didn’t notice that he had an artificial leg [you’re ahead of me]. For the period of the curfew Tony simply wore a spare leg, leaving the original leg and tag at home while he went out enjoying himself.
Improve your vocabulary
Antimacassar: A small piece of cloth placed over the backs or arms of chairs, etc., to prevent soiling of the permanent fabric. Men in 19th century used macassar oil to groom their hair. This was made from palm and coconut oil, along with fragrances from the flowers of the ylang-ylang tree, mostly sourced from Makassar in Indonesia, which left greasy stains on furniture. It could be worse: people who couldn’t afford macassar oil often used beef suet as a substitute! [As an interesting aside, Annie Chapman, the second victim of Jack the Ripper in London, made antimacassars for a living before she was murdered.]
