NOT FOR LACK OF EFFORT

Robert Cole, 36, escaped from prison in Sydney, Australia. How he did it is the best part of the story.

Cole lost 31 pounds, slenderizing his bad self to 123 pounds, so he could squeeze through a 6-inch-wide hole in the wall of his hospital-wing cell. No surprise that Cole was on the hospital side for what the Associated Press delicately calls "a psychiatric illness."

Three days after slithering to freedom, Cole was nabbed. From the AP:

He was recaptured in a Sydney shopping mall Saturday disguised with a beard drawn on his face with a pen, The Sunday Telegraph newspaper reported.

They're holding Cole in a maximum-security cell pending a Jan. 30 court hearing. A safe bet they're probably also keeping him away from the ink pens.