Weekly Daily Brickbats Archive 2008 December 15-31

In England, the Bristol City Council has advised residents not to padlock their sheds. They say it will save money used to repair or replace sheds after they are broken into.

One class of students at New York's New Rochelle High School were asked to compare the book Girl, Interrupted with its film adaptation, but not before English teachers ripped out several pages of the book that contained sexual content and "inappropriate" language.

The lease ended on Bryan Olive's Nissan 350Z in March, and he returned it to a dealer in Tustin, California. In September, the city of Los Angeles sent him notice of an unpaid parking ticket on the car, a ticket issued in August. He called and explained he did not have the car when it got the ticket. They refused to cancel it. Then he sent them the paperwork showing he'd returned the car five months before the ticket was issued. But only after local media picked up on the story did Los Angeles officials relent and cancel the ticket.

Tosha Ford says six Newton County, Georgia, sheriff's deputies came to her home and took her 10-year-old son Alandis to jail where he was booked on charges of possessing a weapon on school property and terroristic threats and acts. The "weapon" was a toy cap gun he took to school one morning.

New York city officials have warned residents it is illegal to decorate trees on the sidewalks in front of their homes for Christmas. Don't worry, however, they say those who break the law are rarely fined.