Watercooler Stories

Fallen leaves leave hole in pocketbook

DES MOINES, Nov. 7 (UPI) -- Some Iowa resident say they are raking up big bills trying to get rid of their leaves.

Yard waste was banned from Iowa landfills in 1989, and leaf-burning hasn't been allowed for years in about 100 Iowa cities -- including Cedar Rapids, Des Moines, Ames and Sioux City, the Des Moines Register reports.

In Des Moines, yard waste is hauled away in brown bags by the Metro Waste Authority, which turns it into compost.

The bags, however, aren't cheap. Residents in Des Moines and 10 neighboring cities pay $1.50 per bag to have the waste authority haul away the leaves.

Resident Larry Johnson says he uses about 40 lawn bags each year and would probably go through four times that many if he didn't mulch the leaves first.

"It seems a little excessive. I can handle it, but if you were on a fixed income or something, it would really set you back. We'll spend about 60 bucks on bags this season alone," he told the newspaper.

Family searches cemetery for dad's grave

LIBERTYVILLE, Ill., Nov. 7 (UPI) -- The family of a man who died in 1966 is trying to locate his grave in a Chicago-area cemetery and so far has dug up two other bodies. but not his.

Dragoljub Ilic, an immigrant from Yugoslavia, was buried in St. Sava Serbian Orthodox Cemetery in Libertyville after his death from cancer. The family moved away and the headstone disappeared from the grave, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.

Now, Ilic's 80-year-old widow wants to be buried with her husband, and their daughter, Mary Hurst of Fort Worth, has considered moving her father's body to Texas. But the family has not been able to find it because the cemetery's record of his burial has vanished.

An old friend of Ilic's has told them they were looking in the wrong place. He told them Ilic was buried in a plot with four unmarked graves, five rows away from the area they had been searching.

"He said that after we moved, he came back up here several years after and went to visit my dad," Hurst said Saturday.

'Helicopter parents' help keep kids home

LONDON, Nov. 7 (UPI) -- "Helicopter parents," who hover over children and provide their every need into adulthood, may help explain why many British children don't move out.

More than half of British men ages 20 to 24 have been reported to be still living with their parents after finishing their education, while more than a third of women are staying home, reported the Sunday Telegraph.

Analysts used to think it was the high cost of housing and the burden of school loans that kept adult children at home, but some now believe overly helpful parents may contribute.

"Parents are increasingly treating their children in a childish way when they should be preparing them for adulthood," said Helen Johnson, the author of the parents' guidebook, "Don't Tell Me What to Do, Just Send Money." "They're sending their children the message that they're not capable of handling their own life."

Helicopter moms are nothing new in Italy, where one in three men ages 30 to 40 still live with their parents.

Cereal cafes may become hot

CHICAGO, Nov. 7 (UPI) -- Now that U.S. adults have grown accustomed to paying $4 for a cup of coffee, "cereal cafes" are now charging $4 for a bowl of cereal.

U.S. market research shows that 57 percent of Americans say they enjoy sex, but 95 percent say they like cereal, reported the Sunday Telegraph.

The Chicago-based Cereality Bar and Cafe offers 30 brands of cereals and will mix some special for customers as well, and add milk from a "Moo Machine" that dispenses milk. Cereal toppings include bananas to nuts.

Counter staff, called "cerealogists," wear pajamas as their uniform, while overhead TVs play Saturday morning cartoons.

Cereality Bar and Cafe has big plans for selling dozens of franchises across the Untied States next year and eventually, it hopes, Europe.