HAUL TALK 2938

Golden Ticket 2.0

HAVE YOU EVER TOSSED something into the trash or recycling bin and, just for a moment, wondered if you were making a mistake? French flight attendant Mathilde Epron heeded that little voice and was rewarded with a trip into space.

At first, Epron, 32, thought nothing of chucking the empty Kit Kat wrapper adorned with promises of a ride into the upper atmosphere aboard the privately developed Rocketplane XP. “It's only others who win,” she recalled thinking. But something made her wonder “what if?” and rescue the winning wrapper two hours later.

Epron will travel to Oklahoma City for four days of astronaut training before taking a flight 60 miles above Earth aboard the four-seater aircraft, including five minutes of weightlessness.

Contest officials strongly denied that, once on board, Epron would be called upon to use her unique expertise to demonstrate the use of seatbelts and serve refreshments on the flight.
Source: Reuters

I Love a Parade! The Confetti, Not So Much …

STRIKE UP THE BAND! INFLATE THE BALLOONS! Line up the floats! Pass out the bags!

As you might expect, everyone enjoys parades — except those responsible for cleaning up afterward. Thus, Muscatine, Iowa, residents Pam Knott and Fran Donelson decided to make EVERYONE responsible for picking up parade debris. Before the city's annual Great River Days Reunion Parade, Mayor Dick O'Brien, riding aboard a trolley, will hand out trash bags to citizens lining the parade route. Knott, Donelson and O'Brien hope by instructing their fellow citizens to police litter, they'll make the parade more environmentally friendly and less of a hassle for the city's sanitation workers.

Thankfully, parades in Muscatine generally do not include elephants.
Source: Muscatine Journal