In a world of terrifying news headlines that seem to do little other than scare us, it is hard to feel optimistic about the future.
With global warming an ever more urgent problem, constant emnity with North Korea and much more, there's enough bad stuff going on all over the globe at the moment to keep us preoccupied.
Those who thought 2016 had been a tough year clearly did not have a crystal ball which to look into 2017, which has been a veritable maelstrom of misery and chaos for many.
As such, it's sometimes nice to hear about the more odd, bizarre or downright hilarious news stories, and, as many of you will have already noticed, a great number of these stories seemed to emerge from Florida this year. Here are some of the very best.
1. I see
[[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/WTKR3/status/943817113625653248]]
2. Horrifying
[[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/ap/status/864952421264523264]]
3. Doesn't seem very fair
[[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/NBCDFW/status/938598643770290176]]
4. He must have been furious
[[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/Jezebel/status/945870424893743104]]
5. Just another day in the office
[[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/OttawaCitizen/status/939097266937389056]]
6. When you want pancakes, you want pancakes
[[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/nbc4i/status/894022983324278786]]
7. Right...
[[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/DailyMail/status/934464102134702080]]
8. Nasty
[[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/thedailymeal/status/920733750111043584]]
9. Some people just don't like fishing
[[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/FOX8NOLA/status/898665913108410368]]
10. Why should the caterpillar take the fall?
[[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/FOX10Phoenix/status/897564809885097984]]
10 wild news stories there, straight out of Florida. Who knows what will happen in 2018.
