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FROM THE BOTTOM OF MY HEART: Cheeky baby Cameron Morton has a perfect heart-shaped red birthmark on his bottom – which shows no sign of fading.

The Grimsby Telegraph could not resist showing the world a picture of one-year-old Cameron, wrapped in a bath towel showing off the unusual mark on his left cheek.

Cameron’s proud nanna, Janet Ballard, said: “How many young men are going to have a lover heart on their bottom?”

POSTMEN GET IT WRITE: The Royal Mail and the US Postal Service successfully delivered a Gloucestershire pensioner’s letter to her American penfriend – with only a name and a street name on the envelope.

The absent-minded 90-year-old writer didn’t even remember to put the country on the address, let alone the town and state.

Just a week after it was sent, the letter arrived safely in Cabot, Pennsylvania.

A postal service spokesman in America told the Gloucestershire Echo: “Sometimes we do things that really amaze ourselves.”

SPUDS ONLINE: A Cheshire farmer, who was sick of sky-high supermarket vegetable prices, is selling his potato crop on the Internet and drastically undercutting the big retailers.

David Roston told The Sentinel, Stoke: “I made a rare visit to a supermarket and saw a pack of two jacket potatoes selling for 80p – which is only slightly less than they pay a farmer for a 56lbs bag”.

His customers pay £3 for a 25 kilo bag including delivery.

For a hi-tech lowdown on the humble spud, try spuds-online

SPEEDY VICAR: A vicar who fell asleep after lunch was booked by traffic police doing nearly 100 mph as he tried to make up time and reach a Sunday service in Shrewsbury.

The Express & Star, Wolverhampton, reported that the Welshpool vicar was fined £500 after admitting doing 95 mph in a 60 mph zone.

PEDIGREE CHUMS: Sellers of the Big Issue in Cheltenham are getting free jackets paid for by a shopping arcade – and two of the seven vendors who have dogs are getting matching coats for their four-legged friends.

The idea was the brainchild of town centre manager George Munro who persuaded the arcade’s mangement to pay £300 for the cut-price jackets, which are actually worth £100 each.

GERRY REUNION: The Citizen, in Gloucester, arranged a happy reunion between 1960s pop star Gerry Marsden and the fan who 36 years ago slept out all night to get front row seats for his concert with backing group The Pacemakers.

Carole Barton was just 16 when she first saw Gerry on February 11, 1964 – and got a clip round the ear from her mother for sleeping on the city street with her girlfriends.

The newspaper reunited the two when Gerry returned to the city in the Solid Silver Sixties Show

TAKING THE BISCUIT: Councillors on Stoke-on-Trent City Council will save a packet when free biscuits, tea and coffee are withdrawn from the hundreds of civic meetings which take place every year.

Labour councillor Tony Pattie told The Sentinel: “I’ll miss the coffee – it sometimes help keeps you awake.”

The cut-back will save £34,000 a year.

EYE LOVE YOU: The Evening Express, in Aberdeen, has teamed up with British Airways to offer romantic ladies the chance to make a Leap Year proposal on February 29 to the love of their life … at the top of the London Eye Millennium Wheel.

To take part, you have to tell the newspaper why you want to pop the question to the man in your life in no more than 50 words.

SPOOKY COINCIDENCE: Peter Blown was helping friends renovate an old shop in Newton Abbot when he found a copy of his local paper, the Herald Express, from the same day …35 years ago.

The old newspaper, from February 1965, included details of the 50th birthday of footballer Stanley Matthews and advertisements included a four-bedroom house for £5,000 and a Vauxhall Viva for £573.

WHO ARE THEY?: Millionaire rock legend Pete Townshend chose a tiny Cheltenham record shop, co-owned by life-long Who fans Steve and Phil Jump, as the only one in the world to stock his new release.

The six-CD collection, called The Lifehouse Chronicles is only available through th shop, called Badlands, or through the Pete Townshend website.

The Gloucestershire Echo reported that the rock star’s recording company’s spokesman said: “Of all the people we approached, Phil and Steve at Badlands really understood the angle that we were coming from – breaking free from traditional sales and promotional models.”

NO ROMANCE AT MAINE ROAD: The Variety Club of Great Britain needed at least 1,544 couples to turn up at Manchester City’s Maine Road ground to break the world record for the largest-ever kiss-in …and they got NONE!, the Manchester Evening News reported.

At Fulham’s Craven Cottage ground, they fared slightly better with 40 couples turning up for a snog.

The kiss-ins around the country were staged to increase awareness of the Variety Club’s Gold Heart Appeal, which helps disabled and disadvantaged children.

SOGGY MOGGY: Firefighters in Nottingham used a hosepipe to blast a stuck cat out of a tree and caught it in a safety sheet, the Evening Post reported.

Marmite the cat, who had been trapped 60ft off the ground, was completely unharmed.

BABY BLUES: Huddersfield Town fan Darryl Aston named his son Marcus Stewart after his favourite player, only to see the star striker transfer to Ipswich Town two weeks later.

To soften the blow, baby Marcus was enrolled in Ipswich Town’s Junior Blues Crew by the club and invited – with his parents – to meet his footballing namesake before Ipswich played Huddersfield at Portman Road.

In a cruel twist of fate for Darryl, the East Anglian Daily Times reported that Ipswich triumphed 2-1 thanks to a 73rd minute winner from …Marcus Stewart

TO INFAMY AND BEYOND: Thieves broke into a South Tyneside cinema and abducted three five-foot high cardboard cut outs of alien charcaters from the new Toy Story 2 film.

A reward is being offered for their return – undamaged – says The Shields Gazette.

WHERE’S MY VAN GONE?: There were red-faces at Gloucestershire Police Station when an unlocked police dog van was taken from under an officer’s nose.

The Citizen reported that while two dogs were being exercised on open land at Brockworth Airfield a dishevelled man leapt into the unmarked white Astra van and drove away. The officer was too far away to interven in time, reported the newspaper.

LUBBLY JUBBLY: Most 22-year-olds dream of owning high performance sports cars, but Christopher Rowley’s dream has come true now he is the proud owner of a Reliant Robin.

A massive fan of TV comedy “Only Fools and Horses”, Christopher has had the van sprayed bright yellow with the sign “Trotters Independent Trading Company: New York. Paris. Peckham” emblazoned on the side.

But his girlfriend is less than thrilled, The Sentinel reported. When he picked her up in the three-wheeler the other day she crouched down in the passenger seat so no-one could see her.

CROWD-SHY COWS COULD SPOIL THE PARTY: Organisers of the annual gala in the Yorkshire village of Wortley are keen to organise a cow pat competition.

A field would be marked out in squares, which are “sold” for £1 each, and a cow is left to wander round. A prize goes to the “owner” of the square where the cow lays its first pat.

But council clerk Frank Sheldon told The Star, in Sheffield, that they were having trouble finding a cow which wouldn’t be “spooked” by the watching crowds.

Scared cows get diarrhoea, and if that happens it would be impossible for us to judge which square was first to be hit.”

Farmer Tom White said cows aren’t as sociable as they used to be, and the gala organisers might have to settle for a pony instead.

For last week’s news nibs click here
All the quirky and unusual snippets from last week’s regional daily papers

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