The Buzz

Published 10:26 pm Wednesday, June 23, 2010

New rules

Gen. Stanley McChrystal has been sacked as top commander in Afghanistan, but the U.S. mission there won’t change, President Barack Obama says.

Overall Army doctrine will change in one key respect, however: Generals and their staffs will be advised to refrain from going out drinking with a reporter from some hippie magazine.

Princess bride: Longtime bachelor Prince Albert, ruler of Monaco, the tiny nation that’s little more than an upscale casino resort, has at last announced marriage plans.

Under Monaco’s laws, the royal couple must now wait at least six months to officially marry, which gives the prospective bride plenty of time to come to terms with the absurdity of Monaco’s very existence.

Tastes good! Like a cigarette should! A collector asks antiques expert Terry Kovel about the value of a 35-year-old pack of cigarettes made in the Soviet Union to commemorate the 1975 Apollo-Soyuz joint space mission.

The cancer sticks were plenty popular with the Soviets but sold poorly in the United States, where smokers were unaccustomed to cigarettes containing a tobacco-yak dung blend.

— Mark Carlson, Herald staff