News stories on television have seemed to focus on politics, politics, politics, natural disasters such as hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes and floods, individual shootings, group shootings, and massive serial killer shootings, and one warm one’s heart happy story. If proper planning is involved, the news ends on the happy story to overcome the grief and frustration associated with the rest of the news.

The stories I did not mention are those interesting tidbits of news that make me shake my head and say “Really? Really? Of all of the stories you have to tell, this is what you come up with?”

Recently browsing foxnews.com, a picture of a particularly interesting zebra caught my eye. One of the few zoos in Egypt espouses its zebra, which is actually a white donkey painted with black stripes. Assuming most of their residents had never seen a real zebra, and because the real type was unobtainable, the zoo owner actually took a paintbrush and added the stripes. For a while, it was a suitable replica of the zebra, right up until the time of a rainstorm which smudged the stripes making the donkey look like it was dripping mascara all over its body. The kicker of the story was that the owner continued to claim it was a zebra, and that zebra stripes blend down into the rest of the body when it rains. After all, the zoo patrons had never seen a zebra before, so what did they know?

Then there was the story in Santorini, which has beautiful scenery, quaint little shops, all nestled in a hilly area with cobblestone streets. Tourists love the area. Donkeys don’t love the tourists. It appears that using a donkey has been the traditional way to tour the city. A large part of its economy comes from the donkey transportation funds. What is the problem? Tourists from the United States have grown heavier over the years, and the poor little donkeys cannot sustain their weight over the cobblestones and up and down the hills. They are becoming crippled and disabled, and of no use as transportation. Still, Santorini continues to tout this unique tourist attraction by just buying more donkeys.

In another vignette, a delivery truck was observed driving down a rainy street, a very rainy street. Through the miracle of a stranger in the backseat of someone’s car videoing the incident on his cell phone, I was able to watch in mortification as this huge truck purposefully swerved into the puddles in order to splash torrents of water on bystanders. Oh, what joy and evil laugh must have come from that driver as, one by one, his victims were drenched from head to toe. What fun he had, and what unpleasant surprises the victims faced.

Perhaps the most alarming news piece I read was about the “printing” of all types of guns, including the AR-15 assault rifle commonly used in mass shootings. (The fact that it is “commonly used” gives me goosebumps. Such a gun should never be “common”.) Winning in a U.S. Department of Justice trial, it was declared legal for blueprints to be distributed to those who wanted them. Using a 3D printer, these possible future killers can now make the gun themselves without the need for any paperwork or background check. Lucky them…unlucky us. Suddenly, watching politics doesn’t seem so bad!