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Image: Suzanne Tucker/Shutterstock

Obesity is now officially a disease.

The American Medical Association has formally declared obesity as a disease, a move that effectively defined one third of adults and 17% of children in the United States as being sick.

The Los Angeles Times report:

The AMA's decision essentially makes diagnosis and treatment of obesity a physician's professional obligation. As such, it should encourage primary care physicians to get over their discomfort about raising weight concerns with obese patients. Studies have found that more than half of obese patients have never been told by a medical professional they need to lose weight — a result not only of some doctors' reluctance to offend but of their unwillingness to open a lengthy consultation for which they might not be reimbursed.

Past AMA documents have referred to obesity as an "urgent chronic condition," a "major health concern" and a "complex disorder." The vote now lifts obesity above the status of a health condition, disorder or marker for heightened risk of disease — as high cholesterol is for heart disease, for instance.

"As things stand now, primary care physicians tend to look at obesity as a behavior problem," said Dr. Rexford Ahima of University of Pennsylvania's Institute for Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism. "This will force primary care physicians to address it, even if we don't have a cure for it."

The decision, which was voted for by the members of the AMA, was controversial - it overrode AMA's own committee who recommended against reclassifying obesity as a disease (it noted that many people with high BMI are actually quite healthy).

Would it lead to "medicalizing" obesity and lead to more reliance on drugs and surgery rather than lifestyle changes? Does this mean that you have a pre-existing medical condition that would lead to higher medical insurance costs or denial of coverage altogether?

What do you think? Did the AMA do the right thing?

My kids love to come to the NeatoHQ (for one, they get to roam the NeatoShop warehouse, which is filled with toys), but they'd probably still get jealous of five-year-old Malalai who practically grew up in her mom's workplace: the Afghan air force's helicopter!

Here's what Col. Latifa Nabizada, the first female pilot in the Afghan air force, said:

There was a need for us to fly and we flew a lot of missions during our pregnancies. Despite that, I managed to bring Malalai into the world well enough. [...]

Unfortunately, there was nobody to take care of my daughter at home and there is no kindergarten in the military. So most of the time I took Malalai with me in the helicopter. She has grown up in a helicopter - sometimes I think she's not my daughter, but the helicopter's daughter!

She was almost two months' old when we first flew together.

BBC's Outlook has the story: Link

Tis more serious than the fashion police! Fashion designers Dolce and Gabbana have just been found guilty of tax evasion by an Italian court and sentenced to more than a year in jail:

Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana were accused of having transferred control of their brands to a shell company in Luxembourg in 2004 and 2005 to avoid paying Italian taxes.

Prosecutors had argued that setting up the Luxembourg company Gado -- an acronym of the surnames of the two designers -- while the company was operating out of Italy was a bid to defraud the state.

In her closing speech, prosecutor Laura Pedio said there was "rock-solid proof" that the duo had committed "sophisticated tax fraud".

Well, perhaps they'll come up with a new and chic line of prisonwear: Link

Chances are, you've ran across one of George Zimmer's famous Men's Warehouse commercial on TV. Well, not anymore: the founder and spokesman for the men's suit company has just got fired.

The company announced the termination in a blunt statement ... and explained, "The board expects to discuss with Mr. Zimmer the extent, if any, and terms of his ongoing relationship with the company."

Sounds like a pretty nasty breakup. 

Link

Intrepid local heroes. Battles from long forgotten wars. The Great Squirrel Stampede of 1822.

These are all historical events that deserve commemorating, and that's exactly what Hamilton County, Indiana, is going to do:

Dave Heighway knows all about [Indiana's Squirrel Stampede].

"There is one paragraph that talks about a great squirrel migration in 1822," he said.

As the Hamilton County historian, he's been educating all who would listen about the 1822 and 1845 stampedes where migratory squirrels destroyed cornfields as they trekked across Indiana.

"I read that. I thought that's crazy. I actually thought, that's nuts," he said.

He told the Hamilton County Leadership Academy and members secured a grant to start work on a mockup for a fiberglass squirrel. In fact, the group would like to see a half dozen of these in all eight Hamilton County communities.

Kevin Rader of WTHR chased down the story: Link

Back to Reality by ntesign

The way I see it, if you're gonna mash up pop culture references on a T-shirt, why not do it with some style? What you have to do is start at the absolute basic, like ntesign did with this Back to Reality T-shirt over at the NeatoShop.

Check out ntesign's Facebook page (give 'im a like, wontcha?), then head on over to his NeatoShop page for more neat designs: Link

The Ring Bearer	Retro Park	Kobayashi Cups	The God Particle

View more designs by ntesign | More Funny T-shirts - Thank you in advance for your business! Your purchase helps support indie artists as well as this blog.

Are you a professional illustrator or T-shirt designer? Let's chat! Sell your designs on the NeatoShop, earn generous royalties, and get featured in front of tons of potential new fans on Neatorama!

The creators of Sesame Street have always kept up with modern issues facing today's children. They've tackled hunger, divorce, military deployment, and even loss of a friend. Now, the lesson turns to incarceration.

Meet Alex, the muppet whose dad is in jail:

According to a Pew Charitable Trusts report, one in 28 children in the United States now has a parent behind bars -- more than the number of kids with a parent who is deployed -- so it’s a real issue, but it’s talked about far less because of the stigma.

That’s why the Sesame Workshop says it created the “Little Children, Big Challenges: Incarceration” initiative, an online tool kit intended to help kids with a parent in prison find support and comfort, and provide families with strategies and tips to talk to their children about incarceration.

Alex is blue-haired and green-nosed and he wears a hoodie – you might think he’s just another carefree inhabitant of Sesame Street. But there’s sorrow in Alex’s voice when he talks about his father.

“I just miss him so much,” he tells a friend. “I usually don’t want people to know about my Dad.”

It’s easier for kids to hear such things from a Muppet than an adult, creators of the initiative noted.

A. Pawlowski of TODAY has more: Link

Forget speeding cars! Pedestrians in London have a new danger to look out for: exploding sidewalk.

The Health and Safety Executive in the UK announced that sidewalks in London have been exploding at an alarming rate. There were 8 blasts in 2010 and 29 last year. So far, they've seen 12 blasts this year.

UK Power Networks, the firm responsible for many of the under-pavement electricity boxes at the heart of the problem say that the explosions should be placed in context. There are over 100,000 of the boxes under London's streets and with just a handful of explosions reported these represent 'relatively few cases when our equipment has faltered' say UPN.

The Youtube clip above, taken in April 2013, shows a gas explosion on Pimlico Road: Link

No words to explain this we have.

Ren Netherland of Animal Photography took these photos below and many other excellent examples of creative dog grooming. He travels thousands of miles each year criss-crossing America to document our country's most extreme grooming competitions.

The Force is clearly with this Yoda dog (who da dog? Yoda dog!):

All of the dogs have been sheared and coloured to achieve the final look. Contestants at the grooming competitions visited by Mr Netherland included a dog dressed as the characters of Sesame Street, one dressed as Yoda from Star Wars and another dressed as different Disney characters.

Other dogs were dressed as tigers, elephants, robots, lions, dragons, and exotic birds. It takes two intense hours for the groomers to produce their masterpieces before facing judges. 

Mr Netherland said: 'The owners have to grow out their dog's hair in preparation for the show - so that it's long enough for them to make something. 'They train and rehearse throughout the year in preparation for the competition, whittling their creation down to a fine art.

'The best thing for spectators is that when the poodles fist come onto the stage, they just look like normal poodles. Suddenly they are transformed before your eyes into something colourful and completely different. The dogs seem to enjoy the pampering and all the attention.' 

View more over at the Daily Mail, which also has a neat Barcroft TV interview with Netherland: Link | Gallery at USA Today's For The Win

How much did you pay for your last sneakers? Probably not as much as these sneaker afficionados did. Sneakerheads, as they're called, collect and trade rare sneakers that can run up to the thousands of dollars:

Two teenage boys eye rows upon rows of sneakers, sizing each up for rarity and signs of use. One of the boys points to a pair of limited-edition Nike Yeezys and said he is buying them for a friend.

"How much is he paying for it?" asks the seller, 15-year-old Alex Asfar.

"16," the boy responds.

When they say "16," they mean $1,600.

"16, there you go," Alex said, counting the wad of cash and handing over the shoes.

Darren Rovell and Brandon Baur of ABC Nightline report: Link

Neatoramanaut Anton Hecht shares with us this nifty animation of the Angel of the North, printed across the palms of 350 participants, to commemorate the 15th anniversary of the giant sculpture.

The Angel of the North, a sculpture by Antony Gormley in Gateshead, England, is a gigantic 66-ft tall steel sculpture with wingspan of 177 ft. Why an angel? Gormley replied:

"People are always asking, why an angel? The only response I can give is that no-one has ever seen one and we need to keep imagining them. The angel has three functions - firstly a historic one to remind us that below this site coal miners worked in the dark for two hundred years, secondly to grasp hold of the future, expressing our transition from the industrial to the information age, and lastly to be a focus for our hopes and fears - a sculpture is an evolving thing."

Image: David Wilson Clarke/Wikimedia

Hit play or go to Link [YouTube] - Thanks Anton!

Temperatures at the dark craters of the north pole of Mercury can dip to
as low as 370 degrees below zero.
Image: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab/Carnegie Institution of Washington

There's Ice in Mercury

Of all the planets in the Solar System, Mercury is the closest to the sun. You'd naturally think that it's also the hottest, but it's not (that distinction belongs to Venus). Oh, no doubt Mercury can get quite hot - its surface temperature can reach up to 800 °F, but at the poles, its temperature never gets above freezing. That's where NASA's Messenger Spacecraft found a large volume of water ice - estimated to be 100 billion to 1 trillion tons of ice, actually.

Maat Mons, the highest volcano on Venus. Image: NASA/JPL

It Snows Metal on Venus

Snowcapped mountains on Earth are majestic, but they're by no means unique in our Solar System. Venus has its own snowcapped mountains, but instead of water, the "snow" is made of heavy metals like lead sulfide (galena) and bismuth sulfide (bismuthinite).

Olympus Mons on Mars. Image: NASA/JPL

Mars has the Tallest Mountain in the Entire Solar System

Let's skip Earth for now and head on over to Mars. If you think our Mount Everest is tall, check out the Olympus Mons on the Red Planet. At about 14 miles (22 km) tall, it's three times as tall as Mount Everest's height above sea level. It's pretty big, too. Olympus Mons is approximately the size of Arizona.

For Father's Day, let's hear some fatherly advice on learning, love, friends, worry and patience from a few famous fathers:

On Learning by Einstein

"That is the way to learn the most, that when you are doing something with such enjoyment that you don't notice that the time passes."

In a letter to his son Hans Albert about playing the piano, Albert Einstein wrote that the secret to learning is working on something that you love. That worked for Einstein himself, who was "sometimes so wrapped up in [his] work that [he] forgot about the noon meal ..."

Source: Posterity: Letters of Great Americans to Their Children - via Brain Pickings

On Love by John Steinbeck

In 1958, John Steinbeck's oldest son Thom confessed to have fallen madly in love with a girl. Steinbeck has this advice:

First - if you are in love - that's a good thing - that's about the best thing that can happen to anyone. Don't let anyone make it small or light for you.

Second - There are several kinds of love. One is a selfish, mean, grasping, egotistical thing which uses love for self-importance. This is the ugly and crippling kind. The other is an outpouring of everything good in you - of kindness and consideration and respect - not only the social respect of manners but the greater respect which is recognition of another person as unique and valuable. The first kind can make you sick and small and weak but the second can release you in strength, and courage and goodness and even wisdom you didn't know you had. [...]

And don't worry about losing. If it is right, it happens - The main thing is not to hurry. Nothing good gets away.

Source: Steinbeck: A Life in Letters

On Choosing Friends by Gen. George Patton

The swashbuckling General George S. Patton, commander of the Third United States Army during World War II, took some time away from fighting the Germans to give some fatherly advice to his son, then a young cadet at West Point. Patton's obscenity-laced letters (this is Patton, after all), included this advice on how to choose a friend:

"You must dispense with friends or 'buddies.' Be friendly but let the other man make the advances. Your own classmates – the worthless ones will tease you about [it] – admit it.

"I repeat ... you must be a man not a boy and you must never let up working. You must not be a good fellow or join in 'harmless larks.' They are the result of an unstable mind.

"You will probably have no choice in initial roommates or tent mates. But keep looking for a quiet studious boy or boys for roommates in the winter. The older the men you can pick the better as roommates. It is usually best not to live with your friends – that makes you lose them. Remember you are a lone wolf.

"If some little fart hazes you don’t get mad. Do what he says and take it out on someone else next year."

On Worry by F. Scott Fitzgerald

When his eleven-year old daughter Scottie came to him with worries, F. Scott Fitzgerald, author of The Great Gatsby and many other novels, told her:

Things to worry about:

Worry about courage
Worry about Cleanliness
Worry about efficiency
Worry about horsemanship
Worry about…

Things not to worry about:

Don’t worry about popular opinion
Don’t worry about dolls
Don’t worry about the past
Don’t worry about the future
Don’t worry about growing up
Don’t worry about anybody getting ahead of you
Don’t worry about triumph
Don’t worry about failure unless it comes through your own fault
Don’t worry about mosquitoes
Don’t worry about flies
Don’t worry about insects in general
Don’t worry about parents
Don’t worry about boys
Don’t worry about disappointments
Don’t worry about pleasures
Don’t worry about satisfactions

Things to think about:

What am I really aiming at?
How good am I really in comparison to my contemporaries in regard to:

(a) Scholarship
(b) Do I really understand about people and am I able to get along with them?
(c) Am I trying to make my body a useful instrument or am I neglecting it?

Source: F. Scott Fitzgerald: A Life in Letters

On Patience by Charles Darwin

In 1873, 28-year-old George Darwin, the son of naturalist Charles Darwin, wrote a pointed essay on religion and morality. The essay, Darwin worried, could unnecessarily cause harm to George's reputation. To this, Darwin counseled patience - "my advice is to pause, pause, pause" - so his son could weigh the pros and cons of publishing the essay, and whether he could achieve his objective by subtler means that did not create new enemies:

"I am rather alarmed at you getting into the habit of desiring an early harvest or result & frittering away your time on many such subjects or by writing short essays (& therefore temporary) on important subjects; & this, I think, would be beneath your powers.— I wish that you were tied to some study on which you could not hope to publish anything for some years. I have marked one or two passages in which you give your own conviction: remember that an enemy might ask who is this man, & what is his age & what have been his special studies, that he shd. give to the world his opinions on the deepest subjects? — This sneer might easily be avoided, & yet you could say your say. But my advice is to pause, pause, pause."

Source: Darwin Project

Photo: Mass Communication Specialist Seaman Adam K. Thomas/US Navy/Wikimedia

NOW HEAR THIS: THE U.S. NAVY WILL NO LONGER COMMUNICATE EXCLUSIVELY IN ALL CAPS.

THE TRADITION OF USING ALL CAPITAL LETTERS IS A LEGACY OF TELETYPE MACHINES OF 1850S THAT LACK LOWERCASE LETTERS. OFFICIAL NAVY COMMUNICATIONS AND ORDERS HAVE BEEN TYPED OUT IN ALL-CAPS SINCE THE 19TH CENTURY, BUT YOUNGER SAILORS SEE IT AS RUDE.

“WHILE THIS DECISION WAS MADE TO SAVE MONEY AND GAIN EFFICIENCIES, IF AN ANCILLARY BENEFIT IS THAT SAILORS READING MESSAGE TRAFFIC NO LONGER FEEL THEY’RE BEING SCREAMED AT…THAT’S A GOOD THING TOO,” SAID A NAVY OFFICIAL.

IRONICALLY, THE ORDER WAS - YOU GUESSED IT - WRITTEN OUT IN ALL CAPS.

LINK - VIA THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

Photo: SI Digital

Oh, this looks perfectly safe ... if you're a mad inventor like Colin Furze. The 32-year-old British man had converted his friend's mom's bike into a jet-powered bicycle that can go as fast as 50 mph!

Furze has lovingly named his deathtrap of a bicycle Norah, and said:

As you can see from the pics the gas bottle has moved around a bit and this was to help weight distribution to make it more stable but didn't make alot of diffrence really. At speeds up to 35mph its ok rather plesant from 35-45mph it goes where it likes and is quite hard to control and at 50mph you have been lucky to stay on during the 45mph shake and just wait for the tryes to blow ... If when i get the chance to take on smoth surface (as up to now there is only one runway that willlet it on dew to the noise) a higher speed maybe possible as jet is still pushing a bit but bumps and dips in runway send things bad.

Link - via Telegraph

Oh, and if the name Colin Furze sounds familiar, that's because this isn't the first time he's done this sorts of thing. A few years ago, we covered Furze's souped-up mobility scooter and stroller.

Roger Putnam, a graduate student at the University of North Carolina, spent three days hanging on the sheer cliff of El Capitan, Yosemite National Park, to take rock samples in order to create a highly detailed map of the composition of the iconic rock formation. Take a look over at the National Geographic: Link - Thanks Anna!

Students at the Honiton Community College thought that they were giving tips to new incoming students, but turned out that they just got pranked ... by their teachers!

Hit play or go to Link [YouTube]

Episode VII by Mike Jacobsen

It's the wheelchair that made the Kessel Run in less than twelve parsecs! NeatoShop bestselling artist Mike Jacobsen is back with this awesome Episode VII T-shirt you can wear to celebrate the upcoming release of the best space opera ever!

Visit Mike's official website and Facebook (give 'im a Like, wontcha), then visit his NeatoShop page to get the neat-o shirts: Link

Battle Damage	Boom!	This Man Loves His Job	The Magic of Science

View more designs by Mike Jacobsen | More Funny T-shirts

Are you a professional illustrator or T-shirt designer? Let's chat! Sell your designs on the NeatoShop, earn generous royalties, and get featured in front of tons of potential new fans on Neatorama!

Narly the Narwhal by Amanda Flagg

You can't go wrong with the unicorn of the sea, especially one as cute as Narly the Narwhal in this nifty T-shirt by Amanda Flagg.

Check out her official website and Twitter then head on over to her Neatoshop page: Link. Your purchase helps support indie artists like Amanda as well as this blog!

Welcome to Woodbury	Hippo Potty Mouth	Diamonds Are Forever	Z is for Zombie

View more designs by Amanda Flagg | More Funny T-shirts

Are you a professional illustrator or T-shirt designer? Let's chat! Sell your designs on the NeatoShop, earn generous royalties, and get featured in front of tons of potential new fans on Neatorama!

Beakerful of Science by Naolito

Go science! Check out this neat-O Beakerful of Science T-shirt by T-shirt artist extraordinaire Naolito. 'Tis perfect for your chem grads!

Visit Naolito's official website, follow him on Facebook (you won't regret it!) and then visit his NeatoShop page to buy some nifty shirts: Link. Your purchase helps support indie artists as well as this blog.

To Infinity and Beyond	Dawn of Gaming	Dragon Egg	Headless Horseman's Jar

View more designs by Naolito | More Funny T-shirts

Are you a professional illustrator or T-shirt designer? Let's chat! Sell your designs on the NeatoShop, earn generous royalties, and get featured in front of tons of potential new fans on Neatorama!

Free Haircut by Donnie

This T-shirt screams, "Hold me." If you think that it's a shish-ka-bob, you'd be mistaken: it's a really neat T-shirt by French artist Donnie, now available at the NeatoShop!

Check out Donnie's official webpage and Behance page then visit his NeatoShop page to buy: Link. Your purchase helps support indie artists as well as this blog.

Triforce Art	Flash Hedgehog	My Moon	White Russian

View more designs by Donnie | More Funny T-shirts

Are you a professional illustrator or T-shirt designer? Let's chat! Sell your designs on the NeatoShop, earn generous royalties, and get featured in front of tons of potential new fans on Neatorama!

Yabba Shomer Shabbos by Randy Coffey

Dude, this is a league game! Mark that frame a zero and then wear this awesome Yabba Shomer Shabbos tee by Randy Coffey. Otherwise, you're entering a world of Yabba dabba pain. Visit Randy's website then head on over to his NeatoShop page to buy: Link.

Your purchase helps support indie artists like Randy, as well as this blog.

Ironing Man	Master Trooper Storm Chief	Doctor Spock	The Ungrammatical Yoda

View more designs by Randy Coffey | More Funny T-shirts

Are you a professional illustrator or T-shirt designer? Let's chat! Sell your designs on the NeatoShop, earn generous royalties, and get featured in front of tons of potential new fans on Neatorama!

Monty Pytron by Baznet

No risk of getting Derezzed just yet! Tis but a scratch/a flesh wound/a glitch! The Black Knight has never looked so digital in this awesome new T-shirt by Baznet: Link

Visit Baznet at his Tumblr for more super cool T-shirt designs, then buy one for yourself or loved one over at his NeatoShop page. Your purchase helps support indie artists as well as this blog!

Daft Nuts	Super Daft Bros	Respect the Chemistry	Rancor Pit

View more designs by Baznet | More Funny T-shirts

Are you a professional illustrator or T-shirt designer? Let's chat! Sell your designs on the NeatoShop, earn generous royalties, and get featured in front of tons of potential new fans on Neatorama!

Ah, this is so terribly sad. Redditor The MacMan posted this picture of the son of U.S. Army Special Forces Medic Benjamin Wise spending some time with his dad, as caught by his mom. The boy's father was killed in Afghanistan on January 15th.

A bit on SFC Benjamin Wise from NBC News:

Sgt. 1st Class Benjamin Wise, 34, of Little Rock, was on his fourth deployment overseas when he was injured during an insurgent attack on his unit last week. He died from his wounds Sunday at a hospital in Germany, the Department of Defense said in a statement Tuesday.

His brother, 35-year-old Jeremy Wise, was killed in a terrorist attack on a CIA outpost in Afghanistan in December 2009. He was a former Navy Seal working as a security contractor.

Their brother, Marine Corps Cpl. Matthew Wise, is based in Hawaii but was in Germany to be with his brother, his wife Amber said. She said she was at Benjamin's home in Washington state watching his children, but she declined further comment.

The Army Special Forces soldier is survived by his wife, two sons and a daughter.

Go hug your kids. Link | Benjamin Wise' tribute website

Over at the Neatorama Facebook page, David spotted this "walk button" for giants over at a California pedestrian crossing. What? You don't believe in giants? Well, what else could it be for?

Photo: Royal Saskatchewan Museum

T. rex itself couldn't make it, but he sends his regards. And poop.

The Royal Saskatchewan Museum is sending a replica of its prized fossilized dinosaur poop (or "coprolite," in polite company) to the Smithsonian Institution:

According to the RSM, the T. rex coprolite was "deposited" over 65 million years ago in what is now southwest Saskatchewan. The original fossil will remain in Eastend.

Scientists say much can be learned about dinosaurs by examining their droppings. This particular coprolite contains bone fragments, confirming that the T. rex was indeed a meat eater.

Furthermore, the bone chips are shattered and still angular, not worn down by stomach acid, suggesting that the meat didn't spend much time in the dinosaur's stomach.

You sure can tell a lot by looking at someone's poop! Link - via LiveScience

In September 2012, passers-by ran across a badly mangled body of a man on the streets of London. There were no identity papers on him and no one reported him missing. But that's not the only mysterious thing about him: the dead man's fatal injuries couldn't have been caused by a traffic accident, so the only logical explanation was that he fell to his death. But from where and how?

The solution to this mystery spanned two continents and eight countries, as Andy Brownstone of the BBC explains: Link [self-starting video]

Image: Conrad Brown and Bob Kronbauer

Biking to work is already healthy for you and better for the environment, but thanks to this contraption by Canadian designer Greg Papove, it's can also be much more fun! Papove added a series of ramps called "Whoopdeedoo" onto pre-existing bike paths in Vancouver, BC, Canada. They seem to be a hit with bikers!

Link - via designboom

The following is a Whodunit by Hy Conrad featuring Sherman Oliver Holmes, a mysterious crime solver and great-great-grandson of Sherlock Holmes. Can you solve the crime?

Photo: Christopher Dodge/Shutterstock

Sherman Holmes was out for a drive on a lonely country road. He saw the police car and the sign for the labyrinth maze at almost the same moment. "A labyrinth puzzle plus a crime," he chuckled, stepping on the brakes. "How lovely." He switched on his turn signal and pulled off into the parking lot.

The roadside attraction, "Queen Victoria's Maze," consisted of a ticket booth, a small, shabby office, and the maze itself, a seven-foot-high square of ill-kept hedges. Curious motorists were lured into paying three dollars a piece to get lost in the confusing pathways inside the hedges.

Sherman bypassed the empty ticket booth and wandered up a gravel path and into the maze itself. Two right turns brought him to a dead end - a dead end complete with a corpse. A highway patrolman was standing over the corpse of a casually dressed man, a knife stuck between his ribs. Three men and a woman faced the officer.

"My husband Kyle and I came into a maze and split up just for fun," the woman said between sobs. "After several minutes of wandering, I wound up outside at another entrance. I was going to try again. I called Kyle, to see how he was doing. That's when I heard it - some scuffling - like a fight. Then Kyle screamed."

"I heard the scream, too," said the tallest man. "I was on a bench at the center of the maze. I didn't hear any scuffling, probably because the fountain there drowned it out. I'm Bill McQuire. I hurried out of the maze and found Mrs. Turner. The two of us went back in and discovered the body together."

"I'm the owner," said a short, disheveled man. "Paul Moran. These people were the only three customers in there. After taking the Turners' money at the ticket booth, I went into the office. Abe, my electrician, was rewiring the system. I switched off the main fuse box for him. Then I walked around picking up trash. Abe was still working when I heard a man's scream."

Abe, the electrician, was the last to speak. "What Paul said is true. I was in a crawl space under the office the whole time, doing the wiring. I didn't see anything or hear anyone until the scream."

The officer bent down to examine the body. "No wallet. Maybe it was a botched robbery. But we'll have to wait for the experts."

"I'm an expert," came a voice from behind. They turned around to find a short, owlish man with a briar pipe between his teeth. "Sherman Holmes, at your service. The solution is elementary, if you'd care to listen."

WHO KILLED KYLE TURNER?
HOW DID SHERMAN DEDUCE THE TRUTH?