Royal embarrassment: In town before the holidays to do a little Christmas shopping, the Prince of Morocco and his entourage dropped a bundle at Wild about Music, a specialty gift store in Austin. Looking to decorate a music-themed room in his castle back home, he purchased -- among other items -- a guitar-shaped chair, a violin side table and 24 sculptures. The store's owner, Fred Schmidt, told the Austin Business Journal that the prince wasn't asking the prices of anything, just pointing at the things he wanted. And when it came time to tally the total, the prince pulled out his platinum credit card, only to have to be told by Schmidt that the store doesn't take American Express. Luckily, the prince called his ambassador who swung by with his own entourage and a Visa card. The shop had to ship the princely purchases --26 cases of merchandise -- to a cargo terminal at New York's JFK airport.

Virgin visage: In Floresville, just before Christmas, Antonia Longoria's daughter drew the blinds on the living room window and asked her mother why she had sprayed the glass with fake snow. Curious as to what her daughter was talking about, she went to the window to see for herself; sure enough, there was a white liquid-looking substance there. Upon closer inspection, mother and daughter both made out the image of La Virgen de Guadalupe. The news got around after the window was shown on local TV, and through the holidays Longoria welcomed hundreds of neighbors and strangers into her home to see it. At least one neighbor didn't appreciate the increased traffic on Peach Street where the house is located, and others dismissed the image as a random impression caused by a burst seal on the double-paned insulated window. Virgin visage or abstract Rorschach, many appreciated the timing of the image, and chose to interpret it as a spiritual reminder of the true meaning of the Christmas holiday.

Nothing's afoot: An Austin man filed a complaint last week against a UT police officer who made him get out of his car at gunpoint when he thought the fake foot hanging out of the back of the man's Dodge caravan was real. The punishment for a tasteless joke? The officer led Jim Rankin, handcuffed, across a nearby parking lot and into a deli where he had the manager call 911 even after he had touched the foot and saw that it was fake. Then he had Rankin stand, still handcuffed, by his car while morning rush-hour traffic passed by. UT police are conducting an internal investigation of the incident, but the officer said the foot was a sick joke and defended his actions by stating that it was not unusual to find body parts in cars. Rankin's wife, the one who normally drives the van, told the Houston Press that the only one previously fooled by the foot was a 3-year old at pre-school.

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