Watercooler Stories

Woman seeks studious egg donor

LONDON, Dec. 5 (UPI) -- A London woman who said her efforts to conceive have failed is seeking a specific brand of donor -- an Oxford or Cambridge University student.

Sally Adams, who described herself as in her 50s, said she was unable to have a child even after undergoing a $30,000 in vitro fertilization treatment, The Daily Telegraph reported.

She said she is seeking an egg donor, but only Oxford University or Cambridge University students and graduates need apply.

"Oxford is a very good possible catchment area," Adams said. "Many of my roots are there, I own a house in North Oxford of which I am the landlady, and I studied at Oxford University."

"Oxford and Cambridge are the seat of people who are both academic and intellectual and also often very altruistic," she said. "An egg donor needs to be under 32-years-old, and I am looking for someone who is educated, intellectual and possibly with connections with the colleges."

Pizzeria: Deer butchering misunderstanding

ALLENTOWN, Pa., Dec. 5 (UPI) -- Officials in Allentown, Pa., said a city health inspector found a bagged deer that had been butchered at a pizzeria in the city.

Allentown city spokesman Michael Moore, a patron at Stromboli Pizza, contacted the city health department and said a deer was being butchered in the eatery's kitchen, The (Allentown) Morning Call reported.

Stromboli Pizza manager John Okumus said the incident was the result of a misunderstanding after he shot two deer while hunting. He said he promised one of the deer to a friend and left the carcass wrapped in plastic in a back area of the pizza shop's kitchen.

Okmus, who had the day off from work at the time of the incident Thursday, said his friend was supposed to have picked up the carcass on his way home from work, but one of the restaurant's cooks mistakenly believed the deer was there to be butchered. He said the cook was spotted butchering the deer by a girl who looked into the kitchen through an open door.

"The health department did their job, a good job," Okumus said. "There are bad people out there. But, the deer was not to sell."

The health department report confirmed the deer was never meant for public consumption. The pizzeria was not cited.

Library display shows Santa's grisly end

OBERLIN, Ohio, Dec. 5 (UPI) -- A public library in Oberlin, Ohio, has a holiday display that features a legless Santa Claus being pushed down the stairs by a sadistic Christmas tree.

Conceptual artist Keith McGuckin, who created the Oberlin Public Library display, created a narrative to accompany the image that explains Santa's legs were destroyed by an alcohol-fueled incident involving power lines, and the tree pushing St. Nick's wheelchair down a flight of stairs plans to visit a strip club with the money he took from Santa's Salvation Army kettle, The (Elyria, Ohio) Chronicle-Telegram reported.

The artist said authorities would rule the jolly elf's death an accident.

McGuckin, who raised controversy in previous years with Christmas displays featuring Nazi gingerbread men and drug-smuggling elves, said he does not expect his latest work of art to prove any less provocative.

"I think a lot of people will be upset about a legless Santa," he said.

Library director Darren McDonough said the display will remain in place for the holiday season.

"Remember the old library saying -- 'If we don't have something to offend you, we're not doing our job,'" McDonough said.

Obama mom-in-law may live in White House

WASHINGTON, Dec. 5 (UPI) -- Sources within Barack Obama's family say they expect the U.S. President-elect mother-in-law to move with her family into the White House.

USA Today reported that Michelle Obama's mother, Marian Robinson, is believed to be planning to move from her native Chicago to continue her campaign-era role of helping care for the first family's two young daughters.

Robinson and Michelle Obama have not officially confirmed whether the grandmother of Sasha and Malia Ann Obama will move into the White House with the rest of the family Jan. 20, but Robinson recently told the Boston Globe: "If somebody's going to be with these kids other than their parents, it better be me."

William Bushong, staff historian for the non-profit White House Historical Association, said Robinson would be far from the first presidential in-law to live in the White House. He said President Andrew Jackson "brought just about everybody in his family with him from Tennessee to Washington" after his inauguration in 1829.

Myra Gutin, a historian at Rider University in New Jersey, said strife between presidents and their live-in mothers-in-law is also not unheard of. Madge Gates Wallace, mother of President Harry Truman's wife, Elizabeth Wallace Truman, was well known for being unimpressed with her daughter's spouse.

"She was a nasty son of a gun. She would frequently say, after her son-in-law became president, that it was in large measure because he married Bess," Gutin said.