Choose your hobbies thoughtfully. Apparently one ambitious hobbyist and Civil War buff didn't get the memo: If you're going to devote your life to rebuilding historic weapons, don't load them with live ammunition and fire them directly at friends' livingrooms.

Here, in a small town outside Pittsburgh PA, Captain Idiot proudly built his Civil War cannon to perfection -- when he lit the fuse, the full-bore cannonball sailed 1200 feet through the air, crashed through a neighbor's window and wall and landed emphatically in a closet. Gotcha!

No one was hurt. It was an accident. And it worked...the damn cannon worked, probably better than its 1860 antecedant! But its nitwit creator may have to start looking for other hobbies. (What's wrong with gardening...or bayonet juggling?) He was arrested and charged with too many offenses to list. (Reckless endangerment, criminal stupidity, etc.) He said he's sorry. He promises never to do it again (once he gets out of jail)...at least not around this neighbor's destroyed house or with this particular cannon.