Watercooler Stories

Harrods boots 'intimidating' soldier

LONDON, Nov. 21 (UPI) -- Officials with London's landmark Harrods department store admit more discretion should have been used before a uniformed soldier was asked to leave.

The incident occurred eight days ago on Remembrance Sunday, when Britain acknowledges its war dead and the signing of the armistice in World War I, the Telegraph reported Monday.

Lt. Daniel Lenherr, 26, of the Royal Horse Artillery visited the store after attending a memorial service with his wife and was quickly approached by Harrods' staff concerned about his uniform.

He was wearing barracks dress, which consists of field green trousers and jacket with a leather belt, a white shirt and dark gold tie. Staff asked him to leave, as his uniform could intimidate other customers, the newspaper said.

An unidentified store spokesman said the store has long had a no-uniforms policy but considering what day it was, more discretion should have been used, the Telegraph said.

Football game's score wins Pick-4 lottery

TOLEDO, Ohio, Nov. 21 (UPI) -- Six Ohio State football fans in Toledo got a double dose of joy when their team won 42-39 and the score won them each $5,000 in a Pick 4 lottery minutes later.

The scene unfolded Saturday at Flav's Variety store, where store manager James Foster encourages regular customers to watch games on a wall-mounted television, the Toledo Blade reported Monday.

At half-time in the Ohio State-Michigan game, one of the fans suggested playing the game's final score as a Pick 4 ticket.

Foster said he laughed when six fans scrambled to buy tickets when the game ended at 7:13 p.m., 16 minutes before the draw.

He's said he's kicking himself now for not spending $1 too, the draw came up 4, 2, 3 and 9, the newspaper said. The odds of those numbers turning up in that combination -- or any combination -- are 10,000 to 1, lottery officials said.

The odds of them matching the score of a just-finished football game, however, weren't published.

Glow of iPod leads rescuers to lost man

CORVALLIS, Ore., Nov. 21 (UPI) -- Search-and-rescue workers in Benton County, Ore., were able to locate a lost mushroom picker thanks to the glow of his iPod.

Pini Nou, 25, of Vancouver, Wash., was found early Friday in underbrush so thick that it took searchers a full 22 minutes to reach him, The Corvallis (Ore.) Gazette-Times reported.

Rescuers say Nou did not have a flashlight but used the glow of his iPod Nano to attract their attention.

He had gone mushroom hunting with his mother, an experienced outdoorswoman, when they became separated.

After searching for several hours, Nou's mother enlisted the help of employees at a nearby lumber mill who subsequently called in local search-and-rescue units.

Nou was able to guide rescuers to the area by making calls on his cell phone.

Art dealer 'reunites' Hayman painting

LONDON, Nov. 21 (UPI) -- Two halves of a painting by English master Francis Hayman have been reunited some 300 years after the tormented man cut his wife out of the couple's portrait.

The Independent reported Monday the two halves of Hayman's 1735 portrait of himself and his wife have now been reunited and can be viewed at a London gallery after "a chance discovery by an art dealer."

Hayman, who died in 1776, was one of the founding members of the Royal Academy and began his art career as a scene painter in London's Drury Lane theaters.

Hayman, The Independent said, had nearly completed the portrait when his marriage went sour. Wanting no memory of his wife, the 27-year-old painter cut the canvas into two parts. The partition left parts of Hayman's legs missing on the canvas -- something that always perplexed art experts who called the piece "badly composed."

Exeter art dealer Philip Mould solved the conundrum when he bought the "lost" half, titled "Circle of Hogarth," at an auction in rural New Hampshire. He is showing the reassembled painting, including whole legs and wife, at his gallery in Mayfair.