Watercooler Stories

McCain flies in Biden's plane (sort of)

WILMINGTON, Del., Sept. 8 (UPI) -- Reporters Sunday put a life-size cardboard stand-up of Republican U.S. presidential nominee John McCain on the plane that carries Barack Obama's running mate.

The $30 CardBoard McCain, bought in a shopping mall music store, sits in Seat 16F, ABC News reported.

CNN said the press put the likeness in the plane as an irreverent reference to Democratic vice presidential nominee Joe Biden's tendency to refer to McCain as "my friend" and to tell voters a variation of a story he told in West Palm Beach, Fla., last week.

"If John McCain picked up the phone today and said, 'Joe, I need you to get in a plane and fly out to Missoula, I can't tell you why,' I'd get in a plane and I'd go," Biden said. "And I believe he'd do it for me."

Biden spokesman David Wade responded to the joke with a quip about Republican vice presidential nominee, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.

"You realize you could've made history," Wade said. "If you'd found a cardboard cutout of Gov. Palin, that's the closest she would've been to taking tough questions from the national media since she was selected."

McCain-Palin spokesman Ben Porritt told CNN: "This is probably a great day for Joe Biden. He's never been shy about wanting to campaign on the same ticket as John McCain."

Student makes e-mail plea for tuition help

NEW YORK, Sept. 8 (UPI) -- An 18-year-old student headed for New York University has received $6,000 from friends of friends of friends who replied to an e-mail plea for money, he says.

The appeal by Max Stephenson of Glen Gardner, N.J., looks like spam, but is not, Time magazine reports.

"I have to come up with big-time cash," the e-mail reads.

He explains his mother is on disability, his father works three jobs, and all his grants and loans cover only half the school's $50,000 annual tab.

So to cover the $25,000 gap, he hopes 10,000 friends of friends of friends will put $2.50 apiece in the mail or send the money using the online payment service PayPal.

"If you're worried I am one of those Internet rip-off artists, call NYU's admissions office ... ," his e-mail says.

More than 2,000 people have responded, Stephenson told Time -- and only a dozen or so have asked if he's a swindler.

Instead of promising to repay the money, the future sociology major says he will give donors a souvenir.

"If you will send me $2.50 in the next week or so, I will send you a piece of my graduation gown," he promises. "For $3.50, you get a piece of my cap."

Aussie race limit: One case of beer a day

SYDNEY, Sept. 8 (UPI) -- Police in Australia have set what they describe as "very generous limits" for an upcoming auto race weekend -- no more than a case of beer a day for adults.

The Bathurst 1000 is scheduled for the weekend of Oct. 9 through Oct. 12.

"These restrictions are very generous," Chief Superintendent Steve Cullen of the New South Wales Police said in a news release. "Anyone who needs to drink more than 24 cans of beer in a day to have a good time is not welcome."

Racing fans who do not like full-strength beer have other choices. They can bring in 36 cans of beer with alcohol content of 3.5 percent or less, a case of pre-mixed cocktails or up to 4 liters (about 8 quarts) of wine.

They cannot mix and match their drinks, and no glass containers are allowed.

"This is a sporting event unlike any other with 30,000 people living in campsites around the (Mount) Panorama circuit for up to a week prior to the actual race," Cullen said.

Britain hid failed spies in Scotland

EDINBURGH, Scotland, Sept. 8 (UPI) -- Recently opened World War II files show the British government used a Scottish estate to hide spy recruits who did not make the grade.

A book, "British Intelligence, said the Inverlair estate was taken over by the Special Operations Executive during the war, The Scotsman reports. Its official name was the Number 6 Special Workshop School, but agents nicknamed it "the cooler."

The estate reportedly inspired "The Prisoner," a 1960s television show starring Patrick McGoohan as an agent spirited to a mysterious island when he attempts to resign.

The authors of the book, three historians who have combed the files, said those sent to Inverlair were well fed and housed and could leave the estate during the day if they wished. They were mostly foreign nationals, recruited as spies, deemed after training to be physically or emotionally unsuitable, but knowing too much to be allowed to leave the service.

One man was sent there for being ugly -- he was missing most of his teeth and the remaining ones resembled tusks. His trainers decided that anyone who saw him would never forget him, making him useless for espionage.