Subscribe | UPI Odd Newsletter Subscribe Illinois woman seeks 'wrap-star' status BLOOMINGTON, Ill., Nov. 14 (UPI) -- A 64-year-old Bloomington, Ill., woman is New York-bound with the goal of becoming a $10,000 "wrap-star" with her skills at gift wrapping. Advertisement Betty Padgett has been honing her wrap, ribbon and bow presentation for 17 years at Bergner's department store, and later this month goes to a wrap-off sponsored by 3M, the manufacturer of Scotch tape, the Bloomington Pantagraph reported Tuesday. She will square off against three other professional, and four amateur wrappers for the top $10,000 prize. Padgett told the newspaper her favorite gift to wrap is towels, as she arranges by color and design before wrapping them, and luggage is the most challenging thing to wrap well. Regardless, she said she loves her work. "It's not a job -- it's therapy," she said. If she wins the big cash prize, she said she'll give it to an area home for unwed mothers, the report said. Advertisement Sex club could cost studio its lease EDINBURGH, Scotland, Nov. 14 (UPI) -- A recording studio in Edinburgh, Scotland, could lose its lease for allowing a club offering kinky sex to hold "fetish nights" in its space. Lighthouse Studios rents space in a historic lighthouse building owned by Waterfront Edinburgh, a development company jointly owned by the city and Scottish Enterprise. Studio managers say they did not realize what was going on at the Nightshade club nights -- and when they found out they stopped allowing the sex club to use their space, The Scotsman reported. The club reportedly caters to people who enjoy bondage and other sadomasochistic activities. "The emphasis is on equipment rather than dancing," Nightshade promises on its Web site. The club holds monthly member-only events around Edinburgh. Cell phones and cameras are banned. In-flight foreplay leads to FBI charges RALEIGH, N.C., Nov. 14 (UPI) -- A California couple who repeatedly refused requests to stop engaging in foreplay on a flight to Raleigh, N.C., faces federal interference charges. The incident aboard a Southwest Airlines flight from Los Angeles to Raleigh with a stop in Phoenix happened on Sept. 15, when passengers complained about the couple groping, kissing passionately and contorting into questionable positions in their seats, the Raleigh (N.C.) News & Observer reported Tuesday. Advertisement Flight attendants told FBI agents they asked the couple to stop several times, and finally stopped serving them alcohol. The woman allegedly told one flight attendant: "You and I are gonna have some serious confrontation when we get off this plane," while the prosecution affidavit alleges the man called a flight attendant a "punk" for refusing them bar service. Ages were not given for Carl Persing and Dawn Sewell, who will appear in federal court on Dec. 11 in Wilmington, N.C., on charges of harassing a flight attendant. Neither of them nor their lawyers responded to telephone calls from the newspaper, the report said. Mecca timeshares new Muslim investment MECCA, Saudi Arabia, Nov. 14 (UPI) -- Not all Muslims in Saudi Arabia are happy with a new $390 million luxury timeshare facility looming over Mecca, where Mohammed was born 1,400 years ago. The ZamZam tower offers a week's lease on a studio-size unit with city views for about $6,800 in the slow season but the same size unit with views of the House of Allah, the Ka'bah, costs about $175,000 to lease during the month of hajj, a correspondent for The Guardian reported. Advertisement Hajj is when Muslim pilgrims from around the world travel to Mecca. But the new timeshare angers historian Irfan Ahmed al-Alawi, also co-chairman of the Islamic Heritage Foundation, set up to protect sites of cultural and historical interest in Mecca. "This timeshare is the exploitation and commercialization of a holy city," he said. Marble flooring and five-star accommodation will not enhance your pilgrimage or make you a better Muslim." The ZamZam was built by the Binladin Group, the construction firm founded by Mohammed bin Laden, the father of terror leader Osama bin Laden, the report said.
