The Arcata Eye site is apparently well-known on the Internet, so I am late finding it. It describes itself as ‘America’s most popular small-town newspaper’ and has a section called Police Log. I suppose this is fictitious, but it’s a very good read. Here’s an example:
bq. Monday, July 28 12:29 a.m. 12:08 p.m. Baby birds were reported stuck to the the wall of a trailer park recreation hall. A woman said management wouldn’t let her children rescue the birds. An officer arrived, collected the birdies and turned them over to wildlife rescue personnel.
12:11 p.m. A woman reported an ex-roommate ordering magazine subscriptions in her name. …
bq. 10:06 p.m. Got a pair of rottweilers? Be sure and lock them in a camper shell on 10th Street so they can explode at people who walk past.
bq. Tuesday, July 29 2:45 a.m. A vehicle sat defunct in the westbound lane of 17th Street. The driver told an officer it was out of gas and was waiting for someone to bring him some. It’s fair to surmise that planning may not be the guy’s strong suit, since he hadn’t registered the gasless vehicle since 1999. It was towed; he was cited.
I found this when following up a reference by languagehat, who is an editor, to the weblog of another editor, Theresa Nielsen Hayden, Making Light, because in the comments to her entry By my ear and hand
there was a wonderful sentence illustrating the need for the serial comma or Oxford comma, which I can’t resist quoting:
bq. Planet Ustinov – Monday, C4, 8pm
By train, plane and sedan chair, Peter Ustinov retraces a journey made by Mark Twain a century ago. The highlights of his global tour include encounters with Nelson Mandela, an 800-year-old demigod and a dildo collector.
And Theresa has a link to the Arcata police log.