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    Odd Laws
    Odd Laws
    Odd Laws
    Ebook113 pages1 hour

    Odd Laws

    By Jenny Paschall

    ()

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    About this ebook

    Loopy legislation, crazy crimes and punishments – based on the TV series Beyond Belief!

    In Madagascar the law forbids pregnant women to wear hats or eat eels.

    In 1982, an elephant was arrested in Wisconsin on suspicion of murder.

    Minnesotans may not put male and female underwear next to each other on the clothes line.

    It sometimes seems that there is a law for everything these days – you never know when you could be risking arrest through some seemingly innocent act, especially when travelling abroad.

    Fear no more! With 'Odd Laws', the essential handbook for law-abiding travellers, you will know: not to dance on turtles in Malaya or hunt camels in Arizona, get fish drunk in Oklahoma or wrestle an untrained bull in public in England.

    Packed with amazing and side-splitting anecdotes of crime and punishment, Odd Laws proves what we all suspected, that sometimes the law really is an ass.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins UK
    Release dateOct 20, 2016
    ISBN9780008192105
    Odd Laws
    Author

    Jenny Paschall

    Florence LaRue is a founding member and lead singer of the legendary group, The 5th Dimension, winning 6 Grammys and earning 14 gold and 3 platinum records. This includes over 25 million albums sold with 22 Top 40 hits and 5 number one singles, a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and an inductation into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame. Florence’s many accolades include The Spirit of Life Award from the City of Hope and California State College at Los Angeles’s Outstanding Alumnus Award, where she received her Bachelor of Arts degree in education. She has also received numerous commendations for her philanthropic work. She is especially proud of her President’s Volunteer Service Award from the White House “in recognition of commitment to strengthen our Nation and for making a difference through volunteer service.” Florence enjoys spending as much time as possible with her family, which includes five great grandchildren.

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      Book preview

      Odd Laws - Jenny Paschall

      CHAPTER 1

      One For The Road

      ‘One for the road’ always seemed to be such a friendly farewell, at least before the drink driving laws were enforced. In fact, the phrase has a much more sinister meaning, originating from the days of public hangings. When a condemned prisoner left Newgate Prison on his way to the gibbet, he would be put on a cart which would stop at every pub along the route. Each publican would give the prisoner a free drink – One for the Road. Usually by the time the gibbet and the hangman came into view, the condemned man was far too drunk to care about his fate.

      Love-struck drivers beware: the lawmakers have considered you when devising codes for the roads. Drivers in Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire, for example, are prohibited from kissing a companion while driving on winding roads – obviously you’re safe to snog as long as the road ahead is straight! In Detroit, Michigan, it is illegal to make love in a car unless it is parked on the couple’s own property, while taxi drivers who have sex in the front seat of their vehicles during their working shifts are breaking the law in Springfield, Massachusetts.

      In Bologna, Italy, a special law applies to prostitutes who drive. It states that a prostitute can, ‘drive a car carefully and at the same time lead a scandalous life’.

      Bologna isn’t the only city to concern itself with the decency of its drivers. In Athens it is illegal to operate a motor vehicle on public roads if you are ‘poorly dressed’ or ‘un-bathed’. The lawmakers of Pocatello, Idaho, have taken things one step further, issuing a law that reads: ‘It is prohibited for pedestrians and motorists to display frowns, grimaces, scowls, threatening and glowering looks, gloomy and depressed facial appearances, generally all of which reflect unfavourably upon the city’s reputation.’

      In Springfield, Ohio, it is unlawful to clean and dust the interior of a car while it is being driven down a city street.

      You can always trust an Irishman to come up with a good excuse. One gentleman from Galway failed to show up in court after being caught travelling at seventy-seven m.p.h. down a quiet country road. When tracked down, he claimed that the summons got lost in the wash. While the judge sympathetically agreed that it could happen to anyone, it didn’t stop her finding him guilty.

      Englishman Barry Saville went one better when he was taken to court for driving over the limit. He claimed it was the paraffin he used in his stage act as a fire-eater that caused the positive reaction in the breathalyser, not alcohol at all. Magistrates adjourned the case to allow him to recreate his act at a London Hospital and prove his innocence.

      Double parking in Minneapolis, Minnesota, could be just the ticket if you are trying to lose weight. The legal punishment is time on a chain gang, being fed only bread and water. Or you could take a walk across the street in Swat, in the Himalayas, where jaywalkers are forced to run along the road until they fall over from exhaustion. But if you’re really desperate, try visiting Hammond, Indiana, where the automatic penalty for littering the street is one good dose of castor oil to be administered by the police department. A punishment sure to get criminals on the run!

      Most countries take driving while drunk seriously, but the punishments can vary enormously. In Turkey, a drunk driver can be driven twenty miles outside the town, then forced to walk back to town under the supervision of police officers.

      In Switzerland, if you wear glasses, it is mandatory to keep an extra pair in the car at all times. If, however, they are reading glasses, they will be useless in Norman, Oklahoma, where it is illegal to read a comic while driving a car.

      When Patricia Wakelin advertised her Ford Fiesta for sale, she ended up with more than she bargained for. A man arrived to see the car, apologising for bringing his grandmother with him. He took the car for a test drive, leaving his Skoda and his granny behind as collateral – and never came back. When the police investigated, they found that the Skoda was stolen, and the lady was from a nearby old people’s home. She thought she was being taken out for a drive by a friendly young gentleman called Dave whom she had never seen before.

      Drivers in Pennsylvania had better be well equipped. The law states: ‘Any motorist driving along a country road at night must stop every mile and send up a rocket signal, wait ten minutes for the road to be cleared of livestock, and then continue … Any motorist who sights a team of horses coming towards him must pull well off the road, cover his car with a blanket or canvas that blends with the countryside, and let the horses pass. If the horses appear skittish, the motorist must take his car apart, piece by piece, and hide it under the nearest bushes.’

      If you’re driving through Pleasantville, Iowa, at night, be sure your car is preceded by a man carrying a red lantern or you will be breaking the law.

      A New York State Vehicle and Traffic Law makes the following bewildering pronouncement: ‘Two vehicles which are passing each other in opposite directions shall have the right of way.’

      An Oklahoma law reads: ‘The driver of any vehicle involved in an accident resulting in death shall immediately stop and give his name and address to the person struck.’

      ‘Whoever operates an automobile or motorcycle on any public way – laid out under authority of law recklessly or while under the influence of liquor shall be punished,’ states a law in Massachusetts, thereby imposing upon the poor motorist the duty of finding out whether the workers who built the road he intends to use were drunk or careless.

      Perhaps the American lawmakers should take a leaf out of the book of the Lebanese and make their road laws a bit more reader-friendly … No

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