The Odd Truth, June 2, 2005

The Odd Truth is a collection of strange but factual news stories from around the world compiled by CBSNews.com's Joey Arak.

Principal Loves Painting Prank

MONTPELIER, Vt. - This year's senior prank has left a mark on Montpelier High School that school officials don't plan to erase.

The class of 2005 painted a large celestial mural on a ceiling in the main lobby of the school during the holiday weekend, Principal Peter Evans said.

Evans said when he returned to school on Tuesday, he looked up at the mural and thought it was an art class project. He soon learned that it was the senior prank, a tradition that usually has a more troublesome impact on the school. About 170 ceiling tiles were painted, he said.

"In this position we try to figure out how to deal with a case of vandalism that's really quite beautiful," Evans said.

The school will not discipline or press charges against the students for entering or vandalizing school property, the principal said.

"It's beautiful, I think everyone agrees that it's beautiful. We're enjoying it right now, and we don't plan on removing it or eliminating it," Evans said.

Message In A Bottle Returned

LAGUNA NIGUEL, Calif. - Bored while on a cruise with her family, a 12-year-old girl stuck a note inside her parents' empty wine bottle and tossed it overboard.

Christina Leyerly never thought anyone would find it.

But five months later, a kayaker from Texas saw the barnacle-covered bottle floating and snagged it while paddling near San Jose Island, about 1,700 miles off the Texas coast.

When Mark Jackson opened the bottle, the note written in neat, pink bubble handwriting was too damp to pull out from the bottle. So he wrapped the bottle in a sock and smashed it with a hammer.

He then dried the note and scanned it on his computer.

It read: "Dear person, My name is Christina Leyerly. I threw this bottle off a ship/cruise on December 29, 2004. ... I was on this ship for 12 days. I live in California, near Laguna Beach. When you get this message in a bottle, please send it to this address."

Christina also left $2 for postage.

"It was a fluke that the bottle was found," said Jackson, 47, a paramedic from San Marcos, Texas. "I kind of could tell by the handwriting that it was a little girl, and I thought, 'By all means I am going to write back because it was a child.' "

Shreveport Mayor Has Bee ESP

SHREVEPORT, La. - A burst can of soda brought a swarm of bees into a shopping cart outside a supermarket the day the mayor announced that "The Secret Life of Bees" will be Shreveport's first citywide reading project.

The real bees formed a huge circle around the queen until Gail Boynton and her husband, beekeepers from the Blanchard area, suited up and collected them. Customers and employees of the Kroger grocery store stood and watched.

On Tuesday, Mayor Kenneth Hightower announced that Shreveport will join other cities in encouraging all residents to read a different book each month. Several local book clubs are sponsoring the effort, dubbed "One Book One City: Shreveport — On the Same Page."

Developer Tramples On Garden State

PENNSVILLE, N.J. - Now, everyone knows how William Juliano feels about New Jersey. Drivers entering the Garden State from the south are greeted by a new billboard reading: "Welcome to New Jersey. A horrible place to do business." Juliano is a developer who wants to put a truck stop on a prime location near the start of the New Jersey Turnpike. But his plans have run afoul of state environmental officials. They've classified the property as protected wetlands. Environmental officials say Juliano's anger is misplaced. They note their agency has approved four of Juliano's projects over the last three years -- each in under seven months.

Shot Through The Thigh, And You're To Blame

PASADENA, Texas - A Houston-area man is in jail after police say he blasted a wasp's nest with a 12-gauge shotgun and a stray pellet hit a boy in a nearby apartment.

Romeo Gonzalez was charged with deadly conduct and is being held in the Harris County Jail.

Police say the man fired to break up a wasp's nest hanging from a tree outside his second-floor apartment. A pellet entered a first-floor apartment and hit a five-year-old boy in the thigh.

The boy was hospitalized but is expected to recover.