British TV cat's ashes sell for 1,200 dollars: auction house

Thu Jul 22, 12:00 PM

LONDON (AFP) - The cremated remains of a cat that appeared in the opening credits of Britain's longest-running television soap have sold for over 800 pounds (1,200 dollars, 1,000 euros), an auction house said Thursday.

For over a decade, viewers tuning in to "Coronation Street" were greeted with a clip of Frisky the cat crouching on a pigeon house.

The tabby beat 5,000 other cats to get the part in 1990, and he featured in more than 1,000 episodes of the show before he died ten years ago.

His ashes, sealed in a wooden box with a brass plaque, were put up for auction by the cat's owner and sold for more than four times the initial estimate.

After some frenzied bidding, the item went under the hammer for 700 pounds, and with buyer's premium the total came to 844 pounds, Dominic Winter Auctioneers said.

Frisky was a favourite with viewers and made numerous public appearances to raise money for charity, and the auction sparked significant interest.

"He seems to be really well known," Chris Albury of Dominic Winter told AFP.

The winning bidder, who was not present at the auction, also gets a collection of nine postcards showing Frisky being cuddled by Coronation Street actors and a certificate of authenticity.

"It would make a nice cabinet display if you're a Coronation Street fan," said Albury.

Strongest ever beer served up in dead squirrels

Fri Jul 23, 1:56 PM

LONDON (AFP) - The strongest and most expensive beer ever created sold out within hours Friday, a Scottish brewery said, as they courted controversy by packaging the bottles inside the bodies of stuffed animals.

BrewDog, the self-described maverick brewery, presented the beer -- which contains a record 55 percent alcohol -- inside the bodies of dead squirrels and stoats.

Animal rights activists rushed to condemn the stunt.

"It's pointless and it's very negative to use dead animals when we should be celebrating live animals," Advocates for Animals policy director Libby Anderson told BBC Scotland.

"This seems to be a perverse idea."

BrewDog said the limited edition Belgian ale -- made with juniper berries and dubbed "The End of History" -- was also the costliest beer ever sold.

The squirrel bottles cost 700 pounds (1,000 dollars, 840 euros) each and the seven stoat bottles went for 500 pounds a pop.

All sold out within four hours of going on sale, BrewDog managing director James Watt told AFP.

Watt said the controversial drink was the last in a line of experimental brews, explaining: "For the final installment in the strong beer series, we wanted to create something epic, something monumental."

He said there were no plans to come up with a beer to beat this record, insisting: "We're quite happy at 55 percent."

As for the taste, Watt described "The End of History" as a "complex" beer with a multitude of flavours including honey, mint and cinnamon.

He recommended sipping the drink "much like you would a malt whiskey", served up in a spirit glass rather than a pint glass.