Swashburgling

Thisi was the most amusing story I read over the weekend:

A man toting a 3-foot sword apparently met his match when he broke into his ex-girlfriend's apartment: The woman's roommate grabbed a sword of his own and sliced the intruder, police said.
The roommate, a sword collector, fended off the ex-boyfriend, who was cut on the arm, police said.

I got a kick out of this, especially since there's a sword sitting in my spare room at the moment (an old roommate left it and hasn't come back for it yet). Longtime Musings readers may even recall that I contemplated using it against any intruders on the day three years ago when I accidentally left the front door of my house open while running several hours' worth of errands. It ended up that nobody actually came in--in fact, the cat actually came back after leaving for a bit--but it was somewhat reassuring for those few nervous moments that there was something in here with which I could defend myself.

(Oh, and the fact that both the swordsmen had Hispanic names immediately made me think of this. There's no telling, however, if the wounded ex-boyfriend actually got his arm scratched in the shape of a Z.)

A true act of bravery: An 11-year-old girl in North Carolina managed to safely stop the family car after her mother fainted behind the wheel.

Thankfully, they didn't have to use their famous knives (but their toothpicks were at the ready): A group of Swiss army officers got lost whiel on maneuvers and accidentally "invaded" Liechtenstein for a moment last week.