Shut Up Already!

It's happened to us all at some point. You've thrown a party or had some people over for dinner and the hour grows late. You'd like to wrap things up, but your guest or guests aren't getting the hint, even though you're yawning, checking your watch, clearing the table, flossing your teeth.

What do you do when annoyance tips over into near murderous dispair? Well, sometimes desperate situations call for desperate action.

In the western German city of Speyer, a 48-year-old woman was subjected to a mind-numbing 30 hours of a guest rambling on about personal problems while becoming increasingly intoxicated. At her wits' end, the woman finally picked up the phone and called for help to end the torture.

"After failed attempts to get the guest to leave, the woman did not know what to do but to call an ambulance," said police.

But paramedics refused to carry the prattling drunk out of the apartment, so the despondent woman called the police, who arrived and drove the guest home. Whether she kept her trap shut in the squad car was not revealed.

A police spokesperson said the guest would not face criminal charges. But it's almost certain she won't be getting a dinner invite from her friend anytime soon.