The Waterbury Democrat., 1945-12-13
BY PAUL JONES Director of Public InfOrmatiOn)

(DirectOr of Public Imormatl0n)
 Big thingh happened in 1945. The war ended. The atom bomb busted. Taxes began to come down And Mir. Bonner was shot by duck.
 MT. Bonner is of course, MT Stanley J. Bonner of Houston, Tex, as every duck now knows. On a fine October day he grabbed his trusty automatic pistol and yen- tured out into the back yard to shoot a couple of domestic ducks. Duck No. fell at the first shot. But Duck No. 2, a more aggressive type, leaped at MT. Bonner, jared his arm and caused the gun to go off. The bullet his MT. Bonner in the knee. The duck? Still alive and sassy.
 Wacky? Sure. But no wackier than a lot of other freak accidents that happened in l945. For a roundup by the National Safety Council reveals that come war, come peace, people go right on having the darndest things happen to them. To wit:
 Baby Conks Mother
 Mrs Edward Comfort of Brooklyn was driving through Vir- ginia, her 15-month- baby rid ing happily beside her in a bas- ket strapped to the seat Of the car. So far as Mrs. Comfort knew, there were no hard feelings between her and the baby. But the child sudlen- ly stopped contentedly drinking milk out of nursing bottle, swung the bottle lustiny and conked Mrs. Comfort neatly on the head. DaZed she let go of the wheel and the car overturned in ditch. Neither mother nor baby was hurt.
 Not so allergic to thump on the head Is Charles Anderson, a hardy resident of Los Angeles. MT. An derson, in fact, has reason to re- gard himself as practically inde- structible. He was repairing a wall one day when a concrete block fell from fourth-story scaffold and hit him smack on the head He reeled Into the street, just in time to be struck down by Policeman Jess Haenel's motorcycle. He re- covered satisfactorily from both accidents.
 And Mrs. Dorothy Jensenius was walking in Chicago's loop one day when. 10 and behold, bucket came hurtling down and hit her ker- plunk. It had been dropped by dismayed window washer seven stories up A shoulder injury to Mrs. Jensenius and a dent in the bucket comprised the damage.
 "Short Changed"
 One of life's little mysteries to doctors and economists came when 7-month-old Larry Lingle of Har- risburg, Pa, swallowed a nickel and coughed up penny.
 In Toledo, Mrs. Margaret Cooks car blew a tire at railroad cross ing and careened down the tracks toward an approaching freight train. The auto struck signal switch and threw red block against the train. automatically stopping It.
 Every year someone lets a train pass over him without serious re- suits. In 1945 iL was Jesse Spitzer, of Denver. MT. Spitzer did 1t the hard way by first having himself in an auto accident. This threw him through the roof of his. car and landed him on his back in the mid ale of the track just as the train came along. MT. Spitzer lay quietly and securely until the engine and long string of freight cars had roared over him, then found he had broken leg-in the auto &C., cident.
 Whether it was a suicide pact or just another accident, no 'one will even know. But when Miss Betty Boren of Marinette, Wis, returned home one day last March, she found the family's two dogs on the floor, overcome by gas. They had in some manner turned on the stove. They were revived, and haven't tried 1t again.
 Taxi Driver Ethel Sheffield's cab skidded into lamp post in Re- gina, Saskatchewan. one 16-below- zero night last January. She was knocked unconscious and might have fSozen to death if fire alarm box on the lamp post hadn't been set off by the crash. bringing fire men to the rescue.
 It's odd enough perhaps, when . Ire starts itself and then puts