Watercooler Stories

Seattle gets nod as No. 1 date city

SEATTLE, Nov. 4 (UPI) -- Seattle is the best place in the United States to date and mate, according to a new survey.

The National "hooking up" study, done by Sperling's "BestPlaces," chose from 80 mid-size to large cities, based on 33 factors, including male-to-female parity and the number of bars per capita.

Next came Honolulu; San Francisco; Austin, Texas; San Diego, and Portland, Ore. Seattle was No. 5 last year.

Chosen the five worst cities to hook up in were El Paso, Texas; Ventura, Calif.; Tulsa, Okla.; Bakersfield, Calif., and Birmingham, Ala.

Seattle has a lot of venues where singles can meet, pollster Bert Sperling told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

"These are places where people are more likely to run into each other or get together, either by accident or by design. Or places that people may go to enjoy a date," he said.

Duplicate keys easy for car thieves

WELLINGTON, New Zealand, Nov. 4 (UPI) -- The day after a TV news show in New Zealand aired a report on fraudulent duplicate car keys, a staffer was able to get a duplicate for a colleague's car.

TVNZ's One News says employees of a Toyota Service Center were actually talking about the report while cutting the duplicate.

The show documented a loophole that allows anyone to get a duplicate key with one phone call by giving a car's license plate number, make and model. Car dealers have promised to crack down by requiring photo identification and proof of ownership of the car.

Business rallies to buy girl new leg

PASADENA, Calif., Nov. 4 (UPI) -- A Pasadena financial company has pledged to replace a prosthetic "sports" leg thieves stole from the home of a 16-year-old girl who wore it to play softball.

Melissa Huff, 16, discovered the theft of the shock-absorbing prosthetic with a flexible foot Tuesday from her home in Temple City, Calif., east of Pasadena.

When employees at Rescomm Financial heard the story, they told their boss, and the company and corporate parent Realty Executives, agreed to foot the bill for a new prosthetic, the Pasadena Star-News reported.

The girl's father, David Huff, said his insurance does not cover prosthetics.

The local Kolman Prosthetics firms also came forward and offered a 35-percent discount on a new leg, which runs about $16,000.

The girl was 13 when she was struck by a driver who lost control of a car, drove up onto a sidewalk and smashed into a building. Four months after losing her leg below the knee, she donned a prosthetic leg to play first base for the local Little League team.

What's in a name? Rabbis say a lot.

JERUSALEM, Nov. 4 (UPI) -- A group of Israeli rabbis has prepared a guide for parents on names that could bring bad luck, including Ariel, name of the country's current prime minister.

Omri, the name Prime Minister Ariel Sharon gave his son, is also on the list, the BBC reports. The rabbis also suggested that parents stay away from the names of the settlements Israel abandoned in the Gaza Strip.

The names are not included for political reasons. The rabbis say that calling a child Ariel could anger the angel Ariel while Omri was the name of an evil king.

Other suggestions include giving children Hebrew names and changing names that are likely to bring very bad luck. On the Moriya Web site, the rabbis say that names should only be changed for very strong reasons, but they suggest that many non-Hebrew names can be made Hebraic -- for example, changing Susie or Susan to Shoshi.