In Missouri, the law is quite clear – you can have yellow butter or white margarine, but yellow margarine is just not welcome. Today the idea seems quite insane, but when the law was originally created, around 1895, it was actually pretty common. Missouri law makers were trying to protect the products of state dairy [...]

Who knew the fine people of Wells, Maine were so particular about their graveyards? Wells has a law that states “Advertisements May not be placed in Cemeteries”  100-4 PROHIBITED ACTS (amended 11-2-93).  Here is the full ext of the law: A.  The following acts are violations of this chapter: (1) [Amended 4-7-2001] The willful disfigurement, [...]

Some laws are just laws.  Don’t kill people.  Don’t steal cars.  Or police cars.  Don’t deface property.  Don’t not pay your taxes.  But, with the Halloween season fast approaching, I thought it would be fun to find some laws that are specifically related to Halloween. Some are kind of boring, like in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware [...]

Just in case you were planning one, it is illegal to cause a catastrophe in Utah.  Just in case you don’t believe me, here is the full text of the law, courtesy of dumblaws.com. 76-6-105 Causing a catastrophe.  (1) Any person who by explosion, fire, flood, avalanche, collapse of a building, release of a poison [...]

Washington State Legislature has this whole chapter (Chapter 72.20) about Maple Lane School.  The law that brought me to research this Washington piece of legislature and the Maple Lane School for Girls, is section 72.20.065, which states: “Any person who shall go upon the school grounds except on lawful business, or by consent of the [...]

One time my husband told me that our friend Jefferson was going to bring over some venison that he’d marinated.  They were going to grill it, and it was going to be delicious.  I’d never eaten venison, and I’d been watching a lot of Food Network, so I said, “Why not?” As it turns out, [...]

Selling sex is legal in Sweden.  However, Sweden has a generally low rate of prostitution as opposed to other European nations.   But before all you prospective new prostitutes pack your bags and book your one-way ticket to Stockholm, I should inform you that it is still illegal to purchase sexual services in Sweden.  This strange [...]

This is not new news, but it bears repeating.  Hegang, Northern China resident Jian Feng was married to a pretty girl.  Things were going well. They got pregnant, and a baby girl was born.  It wasn’t, as it turns out, a beautiful baby girl.  In fact, she was really ugly.  Jian didn’t understand it.  He [...]

Wedded bliss.  Some achieve it, some don’t.  We hear a lot about what you should do when you’re planning a wedding – from centerpiece ideas to prenuptial agreements – but we don’t hear much about the weird marriage-related laws that nobody bothered to repeal.  In this case, there is a reason nobody repealed it – [...]

Rhode Island Law 31-15-4 states: “The driver of a vehicle overtaking another vehicle proceeding in the same direction shall give a timely, audible signal and shall pass to the left at a safe distance and shall not again drive to the right side of the roadway until safely clear of the overtaken vehicle.  Except when [...]