Woman solves 'rude neighbour' mystery
And other stories from the stranger side of life

A woman flummoxed by her neighbour's strange behaviour that saw him act kindly toward her one day and cold the next has solved the mystery. She said the man would seem "very friendly" but then "scowled" at her as they passed each other in the street, and his dog also seemed more aggressive on some days. The conundrum was solved when she found out she lived next to twins, noted The Mirror. "I legitimately thought they were the same person and the same dog for 2.5 years, folks," she wrote on Reddit.
Old Christmas tree sold for thousands
A 103-year-old artificial Christmas tree has been auctioned for more than $4,000. Hansons Auctioneers said the 2.5-foot-tall tree, described as the "humblest Christmas tree in the world," went for $4,296.13. The tree was one of the first Christmas trees to be mass produced. It was brought to Dorothy Grant's family home when she was eight years old in 1920 and it became a "staple of her holidays" for her entire life until her death at the age of 101, noted UPI.
Boy aims for long-term record
A Scottish schoolboy is working to break a world record for running but he will be 62 before he can realise his ambition. Seb Jellema, 11, wants to beat the record set by runner Ron Hill, who ran every single day for 52 years and 39 days. Since the beginning of the year, he has run at least 3km (1.9 miles) every day, even on school trips, a ski holiday and in "sweltering heat in France", said the BBC. So far Jellema has run 13,000km (808 miles).
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Chas Newkey-Burden has been part of The Week Digital team for more than a decade and a journalist for 25 years, starting out on the irreverent football weekly 90 Minutes, before moving to lifestyle magazines Loaded and Attitude. He was a columnist for The Big Issue and landed a world exclusive with David Beckham that became the weekly magazine’s bestselling issue. He now writes regularly for The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Independent, Metro, FourFourTwo and the i new site. He is also the author of a number of non-fiction books.
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