Watercooler Stories

City to take down sexist signs

ATLANTA, July 11 (UPI) -- Atlanta officials said they would remove "Men at Work" signs from the city after an outspoken women's magazine editor complained they are discriminatory.

Cynthia Good, 48, editor of Atlanta-based PINK Magazine, called on officials last week to take down signs reading "Men at Work" or "Men Working Ahead," the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.

Public Works Commissioner Joe Basista said he would satisfy Good's request by replacing 50 old signs with new ones reading simply "Workers Ahead."

"We're calling on the rest of the nation to follow suit and make a statement that we will not accept these subtle forms of discrimination," Good said.

Good demanded the signs be taken down after Atlanta authorities tracked her down at work last month on suspicion she painted "wo" onto a sign reading "Men at Work," the newspaper said.

Verizon bill addressed to family dog

SACRAMENTO, July 11 (UPI) -- A Sacramento couple said they were shocked and confused when their dog received a $142.34 bill from Verizon Online.

Steve Fanelli and Shawn Donovan said their Lhasa Apso, named Andy Fanelli, received a notice in the mail from AFNI collections informing the canine he owes $142.34 for Verizon service, KCRA-TV, Sacramento, reported Thursday.

"The point is that Andy has never had a Verizon account. We were just curious why this showed up," Steve Fanelli said.

Verizon said the bill was meant for a man named Andy Fanelli who lives on the other side of the country.

"Just because there's an Andy Fanelli back east doesn't mean you send a letter to an Andy Fanelli in California," Donovan said. "There has to be something else to connect it."

AFNI said the confusion may have resulted from the fact that the canine Andy Fanelli has his own American Express card, which Donovan obtained when it was offered for "family members."

"It's an active card. From time to time I take my girlfriend's to lunch on Andy," Donovan said.

Verizon Online said it canceled the debt.

Bank swindler gets unusual sentence

RICHMOND, Va., July 11 (UPI) -- A former Virginia bank official who swindled a Richmond bank out of $450,000 has drawn an unusual weekend prison sentence, court records show.

Charles O'Brien, a former loan officer for SunTrust Bank, was sentenced to an initial one day in jail followed by 52 weekends in jail and three years of home detention -- and was ordered to surrender his golf clubs.

"I've never seen a case like this," U.S. District Judge Robert E. Payne told O'Brien, whose health problems dictated the special situation. "A fair sentence would include 41 months" in prison.

But, the judge said he had to consider O'Brien's unusual needs caused by a combination of a brain injury, bipolar disorder and other problems even if O'Brien's May 2004 brain injury was caused when "he got drunk and fell down the stairs."

Some of the problems, the judge said, the U.S. Bureau of Prisons either cannot or will not address adequately, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported.

Woman claims Middle East spider in Utah

OGDEN, Utah, July 11 (UPI) -- An Ogden, Utah, woman said she discovered a spider in her home that she believes to be a species native to Iraq and Afghanistan.

Lynnelle Carson said she caught the alleged camel spider in the living room of the home she recently moved into with her family, the Ogden Standard-Examiner reported.

"I was working in the living room around 2 a.m. and I looked down and thought, 'Hey, there's a camel spider, I've got to catch that,'" Carson said.

Carson said she learned to recognize the species, which can grow to up to 6 inches long and can run at speeds of up to 10 mph, after her son found one at the family's previous home on an Air Force base several years ago.

"They're not supposed to be here (in Utah). I've heard people say they are coming in luggage or on planes, so we're introducing these spiders here now," she said.

Camelspider.net, a Web site devoted to the species, said the creatures are not actually spiders, but solpugids, which are also members of the arachnid class.

"These creatures are usually not dangerous to humans, but dangerous or not, these creatures are horrifying to encounter," the Web site said.