[Kate Benedict]

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1.

PARIS, NOVEMBER 5. On any given day here, you can find yourself dodging a municipal worker on a bright green motor scooter with a vacuum-cleaner hose attachment who is weaving down the sidewalk homing in on exactly what you are trying to avoid — dog droppings.

A slight sucking sound and, voilà, the sidewalk is more or less clean.

The scooters, officially called "caninettes" but almost always referred to as "motocrottes" (politely translated as "crudmobiles") have operated for nearly 20 years.

While Londoners and New Yorkers were forced to clean up after their pets or pay huge fines, Parisians were able to practice the art of staring into space as their dogs did their business. Then, move on, head high.

But all that is about to change... the scooters will be phased out...As of 2002, a new law will require the city's 200,000 dog owners to clean up after their pets...Next year, the 2000 workers assigned to write parking tickets will also be issuing fines to errant dog owners. Fines begin at about $180 and go up to about $420.

Moreover ... the new tickets will take a particularly direct route to the justice system, to cut out the possibility that a friend in the government can "fix" the ticket, which happens 30 percent of the time with parking tickets.

Mr. Contassot says he is sure that Parisians will be behind the new efforts... Each year, some 600 people end up hospitalized or with broken limbs from slipping on dog droppings. Doctors have warned of a growing danger of parasitic infestations if Parisians don't change their habits soon.

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2.

EL DORADO, ARKANSAS OCTOBER 24.

McDonald's employees found a dead deer under a sink in the men's bathroom, and police were trying to figure out how it got there.

"I am taking this matter very seriously," owner Larry Smith said Tuesday. "The safety of my restaurant, employees and customers are among my highest priorities and will never be compromised."

Manager Jeff Moss told police he couldn't figure out how someone could get the deer inside the restaurant without someone noticing. He also said surveillance video cameras, which are aimed at the cash registers, didn't record the incident ... Employees reported finding the doe Sunday morning.

"Whoever brought it in probably did it while the workers were there," said police Capt. Carl Blake. "There were no signs of forced entry."