Odd news

I cruised through the AP wire for a few minutes today and found some interesting stories...

DVD protects South Carolina firefighter from being shot; no, it wasn't 'Bulletproof'

WALTERBORO, S.C. (AP) _ A South Carolina man is thankful for a DVD that ended up taking a bullet for him.

Colleton County Fire and Rescue Director Barry McRoy says he was leaving a Waffle House restaurant in Walterboro on Saturday morning when two men ran in fighting over a gun. Police say a bullet hit one of the struggling men, shattered a window and then hit McRoy.

The bullet hit a DVD McRoy was carrying in his pocket. He suffered a bruise but didn't realize he had been shot. As he told a police officer what happened he noticed a bullet hole in his jacket, the shattered DVD case and a piece of the bullet.

"I was saved by a DVD," McRoy says. "How lucky can you get?"

One man was arrested on assault and battery and gun charges.

The DVD was nicked. It was a gift from an employee who had recorded a TV show about fire extinguishers.

Couple in Colorado uses a fake $100 bill to rip off Girl Scouts, wiping away a day's earnings

WESTMINSTER, Colo. (AP) _ A pair of con artists ripped off a Girl Scout group when they exchanged a fake $100 bill for cookies, police said.

The unknown couple handed over the bill Friday night at a supermarket, telling the girls it had been washed when asked about why it looked so strange.

"It felt and looked wrong and it was a quarter of an inch shorted than a $1 bill," said Jil Hennessey-Seabolt, the cookie director for Junior Girl Scouts Troop 2121. Hennessey-Seabolt said the Girl Scouts gave the couple $93.50 in change after the purchase.

The exchange eradicated the Scouts' earnings that day. The money they raise in the sales goes to camping trips and to area charities.

"Something like this isn't fair when it happens to adults, but when it happens to kids who work so hard, it's so frustrating," Hennessey-Seabolt said.

The story does have a happy ending, though. A resident donated $100 to the Girl Scouts.

Florida pastor challenges married couples to have sex everyday for a month

YBOR CITY, Fla. (AP) _ A southwest Florida church issued a challenge for its married members: Hanky panky every day.

Relevant Church head pastor Paul Wirth issued the 30-day sex challenge to take on high divorce rates.

"And that's no different for people who attend church," Wirth said Sunday. "Sometimes life gets in the way. Our jobs get in the way."

The challenge doesn't extend to unwed congregants, however.

A 200-pound English mastiff in Michigan to be honored for donating blood 20 times

HOWELL, Mich. (AP) _ He's donated blood 20 times and is being honored by the Livingston County chapter of the American Red Cross.

Not bad for a 200-pound, 2-year-old English mastiff who answers to the name Lurch. He'll receive the chapter's "Pet's Best Friend" award at an event here Thursday.

"We're doing something different this year," executive director Diane Serra said. "We're honoring Lurch because he's actually donated blood."

Lurch's owner, Joni Melvin-Thiede, said Lurch donates blood for other canines about once every four weeks. His blood has helped dozens, including saving one dog who got into some rat poison.

"You really don't end up knowing which dogs he helps, but his little picture goes on each bag so the person that gets it will actually know it."

Besides being cooperative with nurses, Lurch is also friendly with his housemates: four pugs, seven cats and the occasional litter of kittens. There's also an American mastiff named Lucas, who teams with Lurch to eat about 200 pounds of food per month.

"Mastiffs are just like 200-pound pugs," Melvin-Thiede said. "They're just as friendly and just as goofy except they have a couple more zeros at the end of the weight."

Spot on steer's side looks like state of Michigan, could save it from slaughterhouse

SPAULDING TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) _ One steer's unique hide may save it from someone's dinner table.

The animal is named Michigan, and for a good reason — the brown spot on its side resembles the state's mitten shape.

The pattern on its other side is shaped like a "U."

It's one of 30 cattle on Jacob and Georgia Kessler's family-run farm in Spaulding Township, about 80 miles northwest of Detroit.

Cattle from the farm are eventually sold for beef. But the owners are willing to sell the steer for promotional or mascot use instead of shipping it to the slaughterhouse.

Boys seeking buried treasure with metal detector in Florida find live grenade

PACE, Fla. (AP) _ An 8-year-old boy and his friend found a live, World War II-era hand grenade while searching for buried treasure with a metal detector.

Sidney Mathis and his friend had found nails, bolts and a toy car by sweeping the detector over a field near their home Thursday. But it was their other find that alarmed Sidney's father, Chris Mathis.

He arrived home Thursday to find the boys about to put the grenade into a bucket of water. Chris Mathis grabbed the grenade and dangled it outside the window of his sport utility vehicle as he drove away from the apartment complex.

Mathis had second thoughts.

"I hit a bump and that's about the time I realized moving the grenade wasn't the brightest thing to do," he said.

Two members of an Air Force explosives unit from nearby Hurlburt Field in the Florida Panhandle took the grenade and destroyed it Friday morning.

This auction makes a lot of cents: 301 rare pennies sold off for $10.7 million

LONG BEACH, Calif. (AP) _ A penny saved is not necessarily just a penny earned: One man's collection of rare American cents has turned into a $10.7 million auction windfall.

The collection of 301 cents featured some of the rarest and earliest examples of the American penny, including a cent that was minted for two weeks in 1793 but was abandoned because Congress thought Lady Liberty looked frightened.

That coin and a 1794 cent with tiny stars added to prevent counterfeiters each raised hundreds of thousands of dollars, according to the Dallas-based auction house Heritage Auction Galleries, which held the sale in Long Beach on Friday night.

Heritage Auction president Greg Rohan said the auction was the biggest ever for a penny collection, with hundreds of bidders vying for the coins. Presale estimates valued the collection at about $7 million.

"It was a fabulous night," Rohan said. "Every major coin collector of American cents was either there in person, bidding online or on the telephone."

The coins came from the collection of Burbank resident Walter J. Husak, the owner of an aerospace-part manufacturing company. Husak became interested in collecting at age 13, while visiting his grandparents who paid him in old coins for helping with chores.

There were 168 successful bidders, and the auction gallery got 15 percent of the total.

Barking up the wrong love tree... or not

OK... so we all know the eHarmony experiment was a bust. If I were a more adventurous (and more desperate) girl, I'd try this doggie-friendly online dating site. I'm not going to, but it could have potentially offered a fun foray into the world of people crazier than I about their pets.

In other doggie news, I went to PetSmart and the new Petco in Hickory over the weekend. I prefer PetSmart, both in pricing and product selection, paws down.

While in PetSmart, I bought a bunny hat for Lulu and Gracie to wear at Easter at Cleveland Pines during our pet therapy visits. (As if the bunny dress and ears weren't embarrassing enough for my girls.) I'll post pics soon of them wearing part of their regalia.

Maybe I am crazy enough to try that site... or not.

NYC, here I come!

I've finally made reservations for my trip in April to the World Journalism Institute's Alumni Conference.



I'm starting to plan out what I'll be doing in my off-time from the conference.



I'm heading up there early in the morning on April 17. My goal is to check my bags at the hotel (which I have yet to reserve - location will depend on what else I do that day) and goof around doing touristy things that day and during the day on April 18. Then the conference starts the evening of April 18. I'll do all the conference stuff, more touristy things and be back to work the next morning.



I'd like to solicit recommendations for things to do... so if you have any suggestions, let me know!



So far, I want to do/see the following:

Either a Yankees or Mets game (they both play the 17th). My preference is for the Yankees (because I'm a fan and they'll be playing the Red Sox), but I'll settle for the Mets (because it's their last season in the old stadium)

• Dylan's Candy Bar (I saw it on an episode of Kimora Lee Simmons' show and I've been asked to bring Allison Flynn, assistant lifestyles editor, back a souvenier) http://www.dylanscandybar.com/
  The Empire State Building (because I didn't get to go there last time)


• H&M (because there's not one around here and I didn't get to spend much time in there last time I was in the city)

Broadway show

Ground Zero

• Central Park (and the zoo)

Statue of Liberty

Buy soup from the real "Soup Nazi" of "Seinfeld" fame and visit the "Sex in the City" Magnolia Bakery, which really does exist. http://girlfriendsgetaway.wordpress.com/2007/08/23/new-york-city-unusual-and-crazy-fun/

Fabric district (my mother will be jealous)

Any other must-sees? Let me know what you recommend in the comments section!

"I found my true love"... baloney

Unless you've been living under a rock, you know today is Valentine's Day. I'm not overly sentimental, so I have no problem with the fact that I don't have anyone to spend the day with again this year.

But those darn eHarmony commercials won't quit playing on TV. "I found my true love"... "I married"... blah, blah, baloney.

So as an avid procrastinator who really needed to do some housework, I decided to fill out their magical matching survey and see what happened. (Actually, I thought blogging about horrible dates and weird dudes would be a funny diversion, too.)

But as it turns out, there's a reason why I'm single. After completing the 4,000 question (or so it seemed) test, I have absolutely zero matches. Evidently I'm quite repulsive. So much for that groundbreaking experiment... Good thing it was free.

First baby of the season

My sister e-mailed me a photo of the first baby of the season. It's a low-quality cell phone pic, but I'm sure Sheena (the mama horse) is still proud...

New menu

I've been meaning to blog this for more than a week now... but I guess late is better than never.

When I talked to Hunter Naman out at 5East for my story on salad dressings, I asked when he was going to change his menu again (he does this every now and again)... He actually had a new one at the printers and hit some of the high points of the new one.

• Balsamic chicken wrap
• Added desserts - apple pie and bourbon pecan pie
• Jumbo roasted prawns
• Roasted duck breast
• Risotto
• Turkey burgers
  

No, my dryer is not broken

I have two stories to share.

One is sad. The other is mildly amusing.

THE SAD: I am a bad dog mom.
I got home late Wednesday night/early Thursday morning and gathered up a load of laundry to wash as I got ready for bed. Evidently, when I went into the laundry room, both of my dogs followed me in and then went out the doggie door in the garage. But I only saw Lulu go out. So when she came back in, we both headed back the hall to go to bed. I noticed Gracie wasn't in the bedroom, but assumed she had gone into the living room and gone to sleep in her crate (which she does on occasion).

I didn't sleep well, but I thought it was because I'd had an eventful day. But when I got up this morning, Gracie still wasn't in my room. She wasn't in her crate, either.

And what is a good dog mom supposed to do then?

Panic.

So I panicked. I ran out into the back yard looking for her. She wasn't there, so I ran into the garage, where the happiest dog ever (also possibly the wettest dog ever because of overnight rain) bounded through the door. She had evidently spent some significant time outside this morning, but I could tell that she'd slept on her pillow out in the garage at least part of the night.

No wonder I didn't sleep well. My baby was in the garage, wet and cold.

At least she didn't threaten to call the ASPCA on me.

That was the sad. Now on to the amusing.

Photo Editor Jeff Melton and I have been working on an illustration for my column on Sunday (which is about finding the right pair of jeans to fit your body). After a few minutes of brainstorming, we decided it would be cool to string up a makeshift clothesline in the studio and use clothespins to hold the jeans on the line.

But after stringing it up, one pair of jeans made it sag so far that we quickly realized the studio was not the right spot.

A day later, Jeff and I found ourselves outside, at the very front of The Star. The line fit perfectly between the columns at the front of the building. (Jeff's idea, by the way) The sun was shining perfectly and the wind was blowing (an added bonus we hadn't expected). As we were hanging the jeans on the line, one woman going through the parking lot asked what we were doing. My explanation: Sunday Lifestyles.

Moments later, a police officer came rolling through with a prisoner in the back of his car.

"You know, my dryer works at home," the officer yells from his window.

We cracked up.

Because before then we were so focused on what we were doing that we didn't notice all the people driving up and down the road staring at us.

So, if you were one of those people, I have an explanation: Sunday Lifestyles.

Better than a vacation

I don't think I've had a better weekend than this one in a long time. I'm usually out of town on the weekends, but ended up staying in Shelby. My intentions were to work on some minor house projects, do some much-needed cleaning and maybe cook a meal or two.

Instead, I watched two Netflix movies Friday night ("Bounce" was absolutely wonderful, while "Dog Park" pretty much took a nose dive). Then Saturday I slept until lunchtime then cruised around the Internet for a while, made a few phone calls and discovered that there's a watch-it-now feature that comes as part of my Netflix subscription. So... continuing in my laziness, I watched "A Good Woman," (also a wonderful film) then two Ron White comedy shows (both were quite funny), then completed the first half season one of "30 Rock." (Here's the show's Web site) The incredible laziness continued on into Sunday and I finished the rest of the season.

For those of you who know me, the fact that I watched that much TV will probably come as a shock... and an even bigger shock is that I'll probably start watching "30 Rock" episodes regularly.

So, with all that said, my weekend was better than a vacation... though I do feel a little guilty about slacking off...

Just in case you're wondering, I did get a few household tasks done... and I blogged.

Miss Scarlett is no lady

A few months ago, Lifestyles Land was given an evaluation copy of an upcoming book called "Rhett Butler's People." The book, based on Margaret Mitchell's classic "Gone With the Wind," is written from Rhett Butler's perspective (hence the title).

I'm going to try not to spoil the plot, though, so parts of this will be a little vague.

In Mitchell's original, Rhett was always my favorite character, so I was overjoyed to find out that this book was all about him. Before I started it, I had seen several ads for the book and a New York Times Book Review issue that gave it what I interpreted as a thumbs-up.

My conclusion after reading it is that it might not have been worth all the hype, but I do, overall, like it and would recommend it to "Gone With the Wind" fans. They do, however, need to be cautioned that it repeats part of the original (as it must), which is a little annoying. The book is written using everyday language and I'm confident that anyone who has read the original should be able to read this one without any problems.

Although the book explores the personalities of Rhett's people - Belle, Tazwell, etc., the development of Rhett's father was a lacking in my opinion, while the development of Andrew and Rosemary are perfect. How things end with Andrew and Tazwell are great, though.

The ending is a bit bittersweet, which I liked and the reading itself went by fairly quickly, which I also liked.

Overall, the book gets a thumbs-up from me, despite its flaws. It's a good read, but don't come out of it expecting it to be as good as the original.

Here's a link to the book's Web site.

The best redneck Christmas ever

I spent some time the other night with a good friend of mine from college who happened to be in town. We had a lot of funny moments, including these three:

He went to visit family that he didn't know that well. Upon pulling up in the driveway, he was greeted by more chickens than he saw the entire time he was in the Peace Corps, along with plastic deer that were riddled with bullet holes. But they weren't the only thing with bullet holes - his distant family's mobile home also had them. Upon entering, the Christmas tree was Dale Earnhardt and the background noise... yep, they were watching a Jeff Foxworthy special on CMT.

The other odd thing I will relay is that there really isn't an un-awkward way to hug in a car.

And... chocolate-covered espresso beans are not meant for canine consumption. My dogs stole them from my mother's Christmas gift. They were all four OK, but were literally bouncing off the walls for hours.