Burning Furniture, and The Large Red Cow

From the Island County Sheriff's Office:

A caller reported that neighbors on Byrd Drive were burning furniture in their yard.

A Rhododendron Drive resident reported that a large, red cow was in her yard.

Weapons of Eggs, Sugar, and Chocolate

From the Oak Harbor Police Department:

A caller reported her house in the 600 block of NW Third Avenue was vandalized by eggs, powdered sugar, and chocolate.

Finger licking good concoction!

Flapper with Puppies

From the weekly reports of the Coupeville Town Marshal's Office, according to the Whidbey News Times, comes this incident:

"At 8:10 p.m., a caller reported a woman, dressed in a flapper costume with high heels, was trying to get to some puppies in a ditch off Highway 20 near Sleeper Road."

World Record Hula Hoop Didgeridoo Players

A world record was set in Langley: the all important and hotly contested "largest number of people playing the didgeridoo while hula hooping". Forty two people set the record.

When the organizer was asked if the group beat the old record, he said "There is no old record. This is a brand-new category." No surprise there.

Twirling Lights and a Stolen Gerbil

According to Coupeville's The Whidbey Examiner newspaper, these calls to the sheriff's department were recently logged:

7:40 a.m. Caller requests law enforcement assistance or contact at the SAFE building referring to a burglary that occurred sometime over the weekend. Gerbil, fish and clock missing.

8:46 p.m. Suspicious circumstance: Three lights twirling in the sky above Penn Cove. Caller states she saw the tail coming down.

Write-in Election Candidates from Island County Voters

From the South Whidbey Record, this year's list of Island County write-in candidates from voters included:

• Mickey Mouse
• Bozo
• Donald Duck
• Karl Marx
• Hillary Clinton
• Jimmy Page
• John and Jane Doe
• Sleeping Beauty
• Joe Democrat
• Homer Simpson
• Vito Corleone
• Joe Blow
• Pedro
• Stephen Colbert
• Alfred E. Newman
• Mr. Magoo
• Laura Bush
• Jesus Christ
• Scrooge McDuck
• Paris Hilton
• Judge Roy Bean
• Michael Phelps
• J.P. Patches
• Hulk Hogan
• Humpty Dumpty
• Judge Judy
• William Taft
• Peter Pan
• James Bond
• Mr. Apathy

US President William Taft

Coupeville High School's Wild Senior Pranks

This year 23% of Coupeville High School's senior class were suspended from school for the annual senior prank. The difference from past years: they were caught.

This year they broke into the school library with the intention of placing all of the shelved books in stacks on the floor. After the alarm sounded, the local marshals appeared and students were either caught onsite or caught later when comparing surveillance cameras.

In past years:

• At the graduation ceremony each student shook a School Board member's hand and gave him a marble, filling his pockets by the end of the ceremony.
• Old tires were placed over the top and stacked the entire length of the school's 30 foot flagpole.
• A Volkswagen Beetle was disassembled and then re-assembled in a second floor hallway of the school.

White Sheeted Box Man and Mysterious Child's Dagger

From The Whidbey Examiner's Police Blotter this week:

"A white male in a white sheet and a cardboard box was reported running up and down the roadway on S Main."

"A caller reports finding a large plastic dagger in his front yard at NE Pennington. He doesn't know where it came from and requests that someone come to pick it up."

Whidbey Island is Lead Cover Story for American Road Magazine

Whidbey Island is featured in the Spring 2008 issue of American Road Magazine. Thomas Arthur Repp writes a poetic description of the historical, aesthetic, and cultural draw of Whidbey, briefly describing the north-south through loop and the Langley side loop for road travelers.

Inventor of Hovercraft Lives In Oak Harbor

Tim Crowley at the Whidbey News Times just wrote an entertaining piece called "Floating on Air". It's about Walter Crowley, a 90 year old inventor who lives in a double-wide converted to look like a medieval fortress. He has worked for many decades as an engineer and inventor. He's still at it, perfecting designs in his immaculate workshop / laboratory that is complete with a homemade wind tunnel and tools of all kinds.

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It was during his missile project engineer days Crowley began inventing things — a habit that continues to this day.

“We had some of the Germans working there with us at the time, von Braun and those guys,” Crowley said.

“I started working on the idea a hovercraft that I originally designed to move heavy pieces of equipment around inside the plants without having to use an overhead crane,” he said. “From there, I built a hovercraft that the military was interested in.”

“The project I’m working on now is a boat that will float about two feet above the surface of the water on a cushion of air,” he said. “This will reduce friction, use less fuel and the boat can travel at a high rate of speed.”

“Every time I come up with an idea people tell me it will never work, and every time I prove them wrong,” he said with a smile.

Crowley has some advice for today’s young people.

“Always tell the truth and if you tell someone you are going to do something important, do it. Also, stay away from crooks.”