Water palaver!

Often while writing this weekly weird news blog, I come across stories that make my mind boggle but this batch certainly takes the biscuit.

Where to begin? With the man who stopped a heavily-pregnant woman and asked her for sex? Or with the burglars who injured a pet cat so severely it had to be put down?

I think I'll start with the most ridiculous tale to date and work from there: the story of the woman who's suing a zoo over its splashing dolphins.

Bad dolphins!

Allecyn Edwards is suing Brookfield Zoo, near Chicago, for more than US$50,000 over a fall which she is blaming on the wayward water-dwelling mammals. In her lawsuit she claims that zookeepers "recklessly and wilfully trained and encouraged the dolphins to throw water at the spectators" then did nothing to prevent the audience from hitting the deck.

I'm certainly sympathetic to Ms Edwards' fall but blaming it on the animals? Even in this litigious era, that's surely a step too far...

More animal-related antics, this time from France where elephants have been banned from bathing in the sea.

Dumbo and co have been told to pack their trunks and leave the beach after concerns were raised that their excrement could harm swimmers at Granville in Normandy.

Elephants from France's many touring circuses have previously been allowed in for a paddle but that's a thing of the past now that inspectors checking water quality found traces of their droppings in the sea - and issued a warning over health standards at the beach.

But unlike the elephants, one man from Wellington's sea story has a much happier ending.

Aleki Taumoepeau has been dubbed 'The Lord of the Ring' after finding his wedding ring 16 months after he lost it on the seabed while diving.

At the time, he hastily threw an old anchor overboard to mark the spot and vowed to Rachel, his wife of three months, that he would find it.

The Niwa specialist returned several times but it obviously wasn't his lucky day until recently when he spotted the ring "glowing" in three metres of water near the Hutt River mouth.

And finally, an offer that many holidaymakers only dream of: the chance to enjoy a romantic weekend in Venice for just one cent.

Staff at the four-star hotel Crowne Plaza Quarto D'Altino's in the sea-locked Italian city made a serious boo-boo in advertising rooms at a tiny fraction of its normal rate of up to 150 euros.

But a deal's a deal, and thousands booked in within a few hours... leaving the hotel 90,000 euros out of pocket.

Do you feel sorry for the hotel? And should a zoo be sued for its splashing dolphins? Tell me what you think...