Yes, safety is serious business, but if we’re not allowed to laugh once in a while, then why in the world are we human? We might as well be androids or robots.

No matter how serious our work, we all have to have a sense of humor, even if the circumstance is generally serious. Being able to laugh at ourselves or others in times of stress show much about our character as people and allow us to be effective in leadership roles.

With this in mind, as many of my American colleagues and friends head into their Memorial Day weekend in honor of those who died in service to the country through the military, I’d like to cover some safety-related news items that had a bit of humor or quirk to them. Enjoy!

[Image courtesy of Flickr user TRF_Mr_Hyde via a Creative Commons license]

[Image courtesy of Flickr user TRF_Mr_Hyde via a Creative Commons license]

  • Billy Bob, Is That You? Oh sure, Bad Santa was just a movie, but apparently not all Santas in real life are as virtuous and good as we are led to believe. Perhaps inspired by the Billy Bob Thornton movie, a couple of thieves put Kris Kringle on the Naughty List hwen they dressed up as Santa and an elf and held up a jewelry store at gunpoint  in Stettler, Alberta. There was no evidence of a sleigh, but the elf was seen pulling away from the scene in an SUV. Authorities believed that the crook was dressed as Santa in order to hide all distinguishing marks from his body, so he was able to get away for a while. But that can certainly create some confusion this year when the real Santa sits down to check his list and see his own name on one of them. What will his public-relations staff do about this?
  • Did You Smell His Diapers? Holiday travel sees its share of heightened security, especially in the world’s airports. But a 6-year-old boy discovered that he had been placed on a no-fly list out of Canada for most of his life – he only found out about it when his family was at the airport preparing to head to Boston for a holiday trip. The father took a picture of the computer monitor that showed his son on the list, and he said he has failed to get any real answers as to how or why his son’s name was flagged. Security personnel do know that he outgrows diapers at some point, right?
  • There’s an Endorsement for Ya! Does your favorite donut shop make the best donuts in town? Before you say so for sure, consider the story of a raccoon accosting a donut straight from a donut case inside a Toronto donut shop. Caught on video by a customer, the raccoon went into the shop from the ceiling,climbed down a donut case, found a tasty orange pastry and disappeared back into the ceiling. I can only imagine that sales of that particular pastry dropped precipitously the rest of the day.
  • Freedom! Vancouver Improv Anywhere (VIA), a comedy troupe in British Columbia, will often be the source of flashmobs and other comedic happenings around the city. Recently it championed a No Pants SkyTrain ride in which participants gathered at the Vancouver Art Gallery, ditched their pants and rode SkyTrain to Broadway Station. The key to the whole thing? Keep a straight face. But I admit, it must be hard to do when you have a nice breeze hitting you in just the right spot.
  • Giving a Hoot About the Fairer Sex: During mating season, male owls have competitions in order to impress potential mates. And that seemed to be the explanation, and not political motivations, behind a series of owl attacks on government workers in Salem, Oregon. Three workers were clawed by owls, just months after several attacks on joggers in a nearby park. It was noted that these attacks happened during the normal mating season for these owls, so it seems that there were females present to see these attacks. But wouldn’t it have been easier to take her out to a nice restaurant?
  • A Legal Sonnet: When a frivolous lawsuit comes before a court, judges and juries can often get very frustrated by all the time and resources wasted. But in a Columbus, Ohio, courtroom, the judge apparently had a sense of humor. He dismissed a $2 million lawsuit in the form of a poem, reading it out loud in court. He ended it with the lines, “Neither runs or constipation/Can justify this litigation.” The case stemmed from an inmate suing a corrections officer for “emotional distress” after he had an “accident” after not being allowed to go to the bathroom.
  • Said the Horse’s Ass? Have you ever heard of a man being deported for offending the culture of his country? Well, now you have. A British man, working at a gold mine in Krygyzstan, offended locals when he mentioned (erroneously, by the way) that a local delicacy called “chuchuk” was actually “horse’s penis” as part of a Facebook post about New Year’s celebrations in the country. Ultimately, he was deported, but only partially for that; his deportation was expedited to 24 hours  when it was discovered that he was working as a welder at the mine without a permit. And apparently, he didn’t have a permit to be a jerk either.
  • It’s Too Nice to Work! In 1990, Sky Harbor International Airport in Phoenix, Arizona, shut down flights on a clear day in June because the temperature reached 122 degrees Fahrenheit, and the Federal Aviation Administration did not have any guidelines for flying in such heat. Too much sunlight apparently can also ground train traffic, as happened in the United Kingdom during the winter.  Why? The sun was low in the sky one day, snarling train traffic because the sun shined at such an angle on many monitors that drivers could not see them, making for a huge safety risk. Who says sunshine is actually a good thing in England? We want clouds with our shepherd’s pie!