Man lost at sea survives on ketchup

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published 20 January 2023

A Dominican man lived on tomato ketchup while lost at sea for 24 days, reported the Daily Star. Elvis Francois, 54, was swept out by adverse weather conditions as he repaired a sailboat just off a harbour on the island of St Maarten. “I had no food,” he said. “There was only a bottle of ketchup that was on the boat, garlic powder, and bouillon cubes. So I mixed it up with some water for me to survive 24 days in the sea.” He was rescued after he angled a mirror to catch the sun’s rays and reflect them towards a passing plane, which sent for help.

Library book returned after 58 years

Library staff were “gobsmacked” when a customer returned an overdue book 58 years after it should have been back on the shelves, reported the Express and Star. David Hickman, 76, said he checked out a book called The Law for Motorists from the Dudley Library in 1964, when he was preparing to go to court to defend himself against a minor traffic charge. He was relieved to be told that the library fine of 20p per day – which would tot up to approximately £42,340 – would be waived.

Hardest words to pronounce named

Researchers have declared the Irish name Aoife the hardest word to pronounce, reported The Times. The second hardest is another Irish name, Saoirse. In third place came omicron just ahead of Kyiv. “This research might highlight how many of us have been wrongly pronouncing everyday words without realising — and even worse, it highlights our mispronunciations of names,” said a spokesman.