Drunk Kicking Leads To Gaylord Murder. Belarusian Ostrich Looks On.

Okay - so I'm bored, and must apologize in advance for the very tenuous In Your Pocket link that this story has. But... I couldn't resist.

About a year ago, a pair of drunk adolescents wandered into an ostrich pen south of San Francisco and received a right good kicking for their efforts. As their female companions laughed, Gaylord the ostrich kicked McKevitt, 19, and Jonathon Porter, 21. Their precious pride was so kicked-in by the angry-yet-powerful flightless dunny brush that they did as many Americans would: they returned with firearms to seek revenge.

While popping a cap in the parson's nose may have been sufficient, the lads shot at the unrepentent Gaylord seven times, killing him to death.

One of the lads has been sentenced to either five or seven month's jail (depending on which paragraph of the Reuters story you read).

Oh - and the IYP link? The photo used to illustrate the story was of an ostrich on a farm in Kozishche, a town some 260km from Minsk.

Minsk In Your Pocket out now

A spanking-fresh Minsk In Your Pocket is now available. You can spy online, or download your very own Minsk In Your Pocket PDF (5.6Mb) so you can print it out and read it on the bus, on the toilet, or when you're supposed to be reading the latest memo-missive from the boss or whatever.

We are especially proud of the fact that we bothered to create a map that has street names in English, Russian and Belarusian - possibly making it the only map to Minsk with which you won't get repeatedly and irrevocably lost. Or at least not so often, anyway. Of course you'll need to download the Minsk In Your Pocket PDF (5.6Mb) to see the map.

Those of you who have been to Minsk, or will be going, might like to remember that you can add comments to the listings on our website. So you can share your Minsk experience with other IYP readers.

We're updating Minsk In Your Pocket

Minsk Library
Originally uploaded by Kritta.

I've just returned from the capital of the... a-herm... 'Republic' ... of Belarus. Yes, we're updating Minsk In Your Pocket, and it seems there's plenty of change over there on the other side of the linen curtain. The building you see here, for example, was only recently completed - it's the new National Library. It was paid for by various contributors including schoolchildren and Saddam Hussein. Other new bits include an Irish Pub where they serve Australian beer, and a new yet-to-be-opened hotel that seems to have been decorated by someone who used to work on 1960s James Bond films. There's also a railway system operated by and for children. Yep, it's a wacky kind of place, and we look forward to sharing its many interesting facets with you in the next Minsk In Your Pocket.