Jockstrip: The world as we know it

Sewer pipe causing house to come apart

CHICAGO, June 30 (UPI) -- A Chicago-area man has discovered his house was built atop a sewer pipe and is coming apart at the seams.

Anton Jankuski became suspicious something was wrong with his Manteno, Ill., home about two years ago when an inch-wide crack appeared in his garage floor, the Chicago Tribune said.

There were other things -- his windows would break at random, the front door wouldn't close. A consultant confirmed his fears.

Jankuski is suing Manteno, telling the newspaper the house should never have been built where it was and once it was, residents should have been advised. He's been there 20 years.

"If that pipe ruptures tomorrow, there's no way to repair it," he told the Tribune. "I really don't know where to go."

Problem implant brings $1M award

PROVIDENCE, R.I., June 30 (UPI) -- A Rhode Island man has agreed to accept $1 million for a defective penile implant, avoiding the embarrassment of a new trial.

Charles Lennon won a $750,000 judgment in 2004 but appealed after a judge reduced the award to $400,000. The state Supreme Court recently gave him a choice -- he could take the $400,000 plus accumulated interest that brings it up to $1 million, or go through another trial on damages, the Providence Journal reports.

"It's time to be done with this," lawyer Jules D'Alessandro told the Journal. "He's happy to be done with it."

D'Alessandro said his client has been pleasantly surprised by the publicity, which showed him he is not alone with his problem. The lawyer said Lennon now feels he no longer has to be secretive about his problem -- an implant that won't, as it were, deflate.

In the past, Lennon used a fanny pack to hide the problem. The Journal reported receiving one call from a Japanese newspaper that wanted to get the details on the case and to find out what a fanny pack is.

The manufacturer, Dacomed Inc., has gone bankrupt.

Vengeful tenant wrecks house

BRADWELL-ON-SEA, England, June 30 (UPI) -- An Englishman who lost his house in Essex and his cats to a vengeful tenant, was relieved when one of his cats was found scared but unhurt in the wreckage.

James Harvard found his five other cats and a dog but not Ashley, a 7-year-old pedigree Korat, The Mirror reported.

"We've lost thousands of pounds of valuables in the house but none of that matters now that we know Ashley is fine," Harvard said.

The house Harvard shared with his pets and his partner Janice Gledhill was destroyed by a man wielding a backhoe. The man was angry because the couple demanded the rent he owed on a lot he rented for his mobile home.

Robert Taylor faces a long list of criminal charges for the attack. Gledhill had run for it as the bucket of the backhoe crashed down on the walls and roof.

Harvard believes the Korat fled the house in terror and then returned once the situation was calm, seeking the comfort of her old sleeping place. A police officer found her under floorboards.

School pulls ban on flip-flops

TACOMA, Wash., June 30 (UPI) -- The Federal Way School Board in Tacoma, Wash., has flip-flopped on flip-flops and will allow students to wear the casual footwear.

The board lifted its ban after some members said they thought it to be unenforceable and unfair to students, the Tacoma (Wash.) News Tribune said.

Still banned in class for students are pajamas, slippers, halter tops, any shirt that exposes the stomach, pants that are unusually low-riding and very short shorts or skirts.