Watercooler Stories

Panel hits on-the-job lawmaker drinking

SALEM, Ore., May 24 (UPI) -- State lawmakers and their staff members should not be drunk while on the job, the Public Commission on the Oregon Legislature has recommended.

The citizens' group adopted the recommendation Monday based on a proposal from officials of Crime Victims United, who said they noticed at least one lawmaker with alcohol-scented breath during meetings on tougher drunken driving laws during the 2005 session, the Salem (Ore.) Statesman Journal reported.

The commission said it's up to Oregon House and Senate leaders to draft rules barring lawmakers from drinking alcohol while on the job.

"We were uncomfortable acting as a nanny," commission member Kerry Tymchuk told the Statesman Journal.

Tymchuk also is the state director for U.S. Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Ore.

"It makes a bad impression," said commission member Hasso Hering, editor of the Albany (Ore.) Democrat-Herald. "The leadership must act to remind members that this conduct is unacceptable."

2-hour flight turns into 30 hours

MANCHESTER, England, May 24 (UPI) -- A British schoolteacher was safely home in Manchester Tuesday after a 30-hour airline ordeal for what was supposed to be a 2-hour flight.

Andrew Parson, 43, normally travels to the French town of Angers on a 16-hour bus trip with his French students but he decided to try a discount airline this time.

He got there fine but the return journey took longer than flying to Australia would have, the Daily Mail reported.

It also involved six airports in three countries in two planes, two bus trips and a taxi ride but he made it.

It began when his return Aer Arann flight from Angers was moved to Nantes at the last minute and the plane took off without the Angers passengers. The Dublin airline flew him to Cork and put him up in a hotel overnight. But bad weather canceled his next flight, so he took a bus to Dublin for an Aer Lingus flight to Manchester, the newspaper said.

Parson told the newspaper he'd like some form of compensation.

"But if Aer Arann offer me free flights, I might ask for a pencil or a key ring instead," he said.

Kinky Friedman crew gets governor's boots

AUSTIN, Texas, May 24 (UPI) -- Supporters of singer, songwriter and would-be-governor of Texas, Kinky Friedman, are so sure he can fill Gov. Rick Perry's boots, they bought them at auction.

Monday, Friedman's campaign manager Dean Barkley and Friedman supporter Paul Hines showed up at Perry's office in Austin to collect the boots they purchased for $4,050 in an online charitable auction, the Austin (Texas) American-Statesman reported.

"There's a lot of people wanting to fill your shoes," Barkely told Perry. "This is a quick and cheap way of doing it."

Barkley also joked Hines gets to wear Perry's boots this week "so he can be a chick magnet," the newspaper said.

Friedman, who founded a band called the Texas Jewboys and is a regular comedic guest on late-night TV shows, hopes to run against Perry as an independent.

Quotations such as "if you're paranoid long enough, sooner or later you're gonna be right" are sprinkled throughout his Web site.

Farm animal-killing bear leaves Bavaria

MUNICH, Germany, May 24 (UPI) -- A wild brown bear that German officials ordered shot for killing Bavarian farm animals has apparently returned to Austria, a report said.

The brown bear -- the first seen in Germany in 170 years -- was warmly heralded until it began its weekend farm animal attacks. Bavarian authorities then ordered the animal killed, a decision supported by the World Wildlife Fund in Germany.

"There is no way to risk one human life for such a creature, and this bear appears to be a young bear, a sub-adult, which is looking for food," the WWF's Roland Melisch told German broadcaster Deutsche Welle.

While bears usually are very shy, "this guy is different, and it makes life dangerous close to him," Melisch said.

However, German officials said the brown bear apparently had returned to the Tirol, Austria, area and the hunt for the animal had been called off.