Watercooler Stories

At 106, she doesn't need to say cheese

FARMINGTON HILLS, Mich., April 20 (UPI) -- Elsie Weinert was 106 years old Friday but didn't want the party given her by the United Dairy Industry of Michigan to extol the life-giving benefits of cheese.

"It's not my birthday," the Farmington Hills woman scowled at a TV cameraman.

She was right: The party was on Tuesday, the Detroit Free Press reported.

Weinert woke up in a lousy mood, said her friend, Bill Skillen. She didn't want a birthday celebration -- and said so as she sat in a chair, stony-faced.

"I'll box your ears," she said to TV chef Jon Ashton, a spokesman for Cabot Cheese. A fellow Brit, as he ribbed her about her age and offered her slices of Cabot white cheddar.

Weinert rejected the grilled cheese sandwich, opting instead for the salmon-asparagus frittata Ashton cooked as part of a demonstration.

Elsie grew up in Cheddar, England. She and her seven siblings were raised in a humble home and would eat the scraps of cheese nobody wanted at the end of the day, she said.

Yes, she agreed, cheese probably has been a factor in her good health.

N.Y. woman beats mom over will

NEW YORK, April 20 (UPI) -- A New York millionaire and her daughter -- who used to be a son -- were in Manhattan Criminal Court for an inheritance dispute that turned violent.

Eighty-four year-old Joyce Cheney said she and her daughter Diane Wells have a relationship marked with arguments.

Last May the two disputed how much Wells would receive in Cheney's will, the New York Daily News reports.

"She wanted to be the sole beneficiary," said Cheney.

When she found out she wouldn't be, Cheney said her daughter hit her on the head, broke her arm by twisting it and didn't call for help.

Cheney said she didn't get to the doctor until the next day.

She said she put locks on her bedroom door because she is scared of Wells, who faces trial on misdemeanor assault charges, which she denies.

Hen turns into rooster

SALTFORD, England, April 20 (UPI) -- In a role reversal on the old saw about "henpecked" men, Britain's Freaky the Hen has turned to playing rooster, sporting a full comb and a wattle.

Freaky spent the first eight months of her life laying eggs and being courted by a rooster, reports the Daily Telegraph.

But since last September, the silver-laced Wyandotte has been crowing at sunrise, and even engages in mating -- although the machinery needed to produce offspring is absent.

Said Freaky's owner, Jo Richards of Saltford, near Bath: "One morning, out of the blue, she just started crowing."

A veterinarian says Freaky's sex change is indeed very rare.

"I have been keeping poultry for 35 years and seen it only twice," said Victoria Roberts, the Poultry Club of Great Britain's honorary vet.

Satisfying sex correlates with equality

CHICAGO, April 20 (UPI) -- A University of Chicago study, surveying 27,500 men and women ages 40-80 in 19 countries, found the greatest sexual satisfaction in Western countries.

Overall, couples who live in cultures where men and women hold equal status -- including Austria, Canada and the United States -- were most likely to report sex lives that were satisfying, physically and emotionally.

Least satisfied were residents of Japan and Taiwan.

Sociologist Edward Laumann, who directed the study, proposed that relationships based on equality are more likely to suit both parties' needs and interests.

Depending on local customs, people were either called randomly on the phone, approached for in-person interviews or contacted by mail.

"We got kicked out of Saudi Arabia once they found out the kind of questions we were asking," Laumann said. "But we got large numbers of Muslims from other countries to participate."

Laumann is one of the nation's leading authorities on the sociology of sex. He co-authored "The Social Organization of Sexuality," widely considered the most comprehensive U.S. sex survey since the Kinsey Report.

The study was funded by the pharmaceutical company Pfizer Inc., the maker of Viagra.