It is now an offence in South Australia to knowingly “consume … dogs or cats”, and you will be fined heavily if you do. But do we need to pass this law in other states, Folklaw asks? And, if not, why not? What is it with South Australians? Are the rest of us missing out on something we shouldn’t be?

Australian food standards say that meat in a meat pie can be any part of a “buffalo, camel, cattle, deer, goat, hare, pig, poultry, rabbit or sheep”. Some of those are pets, and most of them we eat knowingly. A good buffalo stew is terrific, and sheep is the new chicken, apparently. And there is nothing saying we can’t try the odd cat or dog, too. There is apparently nothing in the NSW food legislation which prevents us eating animals like cats and dogs. So why the hell don’t we? We all know the answer: Because they’re cute, and our kids wouldn’t let us get away with it.

Terror comes in many different forms

The reward for Osama bin Laden is $7 million. But how many people, you might wonder, as Folkaw has, are actually on the lookout? Do we really expect this extremely well hidden menace, and the prize money, to fall into our laps?

Next time you see a turbaned individual walking down the street, are you going to tackle the said person to the ground and take him to the nearest police station claiming victory? Yes it does seem ridiculous, and surely people are not so stupid. But yes, they actually are. Or, at least, they have been.

A Frenchman has recently been convicted of doing just that. He tried to run over a pedestrian he mistook for Osama. The 35-year-old struggling artist named Pierre was sentenced to a three month suspended prison term. He was also ordered to pay over $800 to the victim, who was unharmed.

The ‘bounty hunter’ was reportedly traumatised by the recent terror attacks in Madrid and was the “victim of hallucinations”, his lawyer said.

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The case of the toilet design

Urinals shaped like a woman’s open mouth were never going to take off really, were they.

Unsurprisingly, when Virgin Atlantic put them into its new clubhouse at New York’s JFK airport, people found them hard to swallow.

A spokesperson for the company said they had received complaints about the urinals, which were designed by a Dutch company.

Now, Virgin is dropping the tasteless urinals. “Everyone at Virgin Atlantic was very sorry to hear of people’s concerns about the design of the ‘Kisses’ urinals to be fitted into our clubhouse at JFK airport”.

Virgin was not the first to get fancy with toilet design. In the Bay of Islands in New Zealand, local council asked famous artist Frederick Hunderwasser to design the public toilets. Originally, people could go in there and enjoy the experience as they did their business. But, due to the glorious designs and colour, the loos soon became a tourist destination and people found they could no longer be in peace due to the onslaught of tourist buses and snapping cameras. Council had to build some more toilets nearby to cater for all the visitors and the artwork is now, sadly, no longer able to be used as a toilet.

Check them out at www.pbase.com/philinnz/kawakawa_toilets

Budding Orson Welles brought down to earth

A Perth teenager has been charged after allegedly making hoax radio transmissions to aircraft and the control tower at Perth Airport.

Australian Federal Police arrested the 19-year old Lynwood man after he made the bogus calls on 22 and 23 March, in which police allege he purported to be calling from aircraft seeking clearances to enter controlled airspace, cross active runways and clearances to land. Police will also allege some of the transmissions contained threats to the safety of the aircraft. Charged with using a transmitter in a way likely to interfere with radio communications knowing that such interference is likely to prejudice the safe operation of an aircraft, he has been bailed to appear before the Perth magistrates court on 30 April.