Free Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader Wonderful World of Odd by Bathroom Readers’ Institute

hotel. (And, yes, dogs are welcome.)
    HOTEL: Hemp Hotel
    LOCATION: Amsterdam, The Netherlands
    DESCRIPTION: Nearly everything in this five-room hotel is made out of hemp, a plant with a wide variety of commercial uses that’s often confused with its controversial cousin, marijuana. Mattresses, curtains, shampoo, soap, and even breakfast in this hotel are all made from hemp. Guests can choose from five themed rooms: Afghan, Moroccan, Caribbean, Indian, and Tibetan.
    HOTEL: Utter Inn
    LOCATION: Lake Malaren, Sweden
    DESCRIPTION: Literally “Otter Inn,” the hotel was conceived as a modern art project by artist Mikael Genberg. Guests enter through a cottage floating on the surface of Lake Malaren then descend 10 feet into an underwater “reverse aquarium,” where the room is dry—but surrounded by water and fish that are visible through wall-to-wall picture windows.
    HOTEL: Kakslauttanen Hotel and Igloo Village
    LOCATION: Nordkap, Finland
    DESCRIPTION: Guests get to sleep in real igloos made of ice and snow blocks. They are completely dark and the only source of heat are the down sleeping bags. (The less adventurous can sleep in heated glass igloos.) Facilities also include an ice-cold swimming pool, the world’s largest smoke sauna, and the world’s largest restaurant made of snow, which has to be rebuilt every winter.
    Tibetan mating ritual: A man steals a woman’s hat; if she likes him, she asks for it back.

LEADING LEDES
    When we’re done with the comics, the obituaries, the advice columns, the horoscopes, and the puzzles, sometimes we actually read the news. Well, maybe not all of it…
    B ACKGROUND
    A lede (pronounced “leed”) is the first sentence of a news story that gives the “who, what, where, when, why, and how” that will be fleshed out in the article. And as these real news ledes show, sometimes you don’t have to read any further.
    “Bogota, Colombia’s chief prosecutor hired a psychic who hypnotized his staff and performed an exorcism over a voodoo doll in exchange for a government paycheck and use of an armored car.” ( Sun-Sentinel, South Florida)
    “‘E’ is for embarrassed —like the teacher who inadvertently used a kinky alphabet in a handout to parents.” ( Times Herald-Record , Middletown, New York)
    “Mayor Don Wright has raised eyebrows in town by allowing the makers of ‘Thong Girl 3’ to film in his office on a Sunday.” ( News Examiner , Gallatin, Tennessee)
    “A 38-year-old Winthrop, Ark. man was hospitalized after jumping out the passenger window of a vehicle traveling an estimated 55 to 60 m.p.h. to retrieve his cigarette late Saturday, an official said.” ( Texarkana Gazette )
    “The Las Vegas man whose severed fingertip ended up in a cup of Wendy’s chili gave his mangled digit to a co-worker to settle a $50 debt—but had no idea it would be used in an alleged scheme to swindle the fast-food chain, the man’s mother said Tuesday.” ( San Francisco Chronicle )
    “A U.S. court has apparently ended the television career of a talking penis.” (ABC News)
    The tentacles of the giant Arctic jellyfish can reach 120 feet in length.
    “Fortunately for Ezekiel Rubottom, there’s no law against keeping your severed foot in a bucket on the front porch.” ( Lawrence Journal World , Kansas)
    “Police went to a home in Texarkana after receiving a report that a man had entered it illegally and later found their suspect running nude through a pasture.” ( Tampabays10.com )
    “Gambling is the only thing missing from a new Indian casino in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, mistakenly built in an area where gambling is illegal.” (Yahoo! News)
    “A Kentucky man wearing only a thong and carrying a knife is accused of videotaping himself attempting a burglary, then leaving the tape behind, police said.” ( Herald Leader , Lexington, Kentucky)
    “A dispute that began over the capture of an opossum in a residential neighborhood ended with police shooting a Rottweiler and