Watercooler Stories

Special delivery made in flight

BOSTON, Jan. 2 (UPI) -- A trans-Atlantic passenger manifest was off by one person when a plane landed in Boston because a listed passenger gave birth during the flight.

What began as a routine seven-hour international flight Wednesday from Amsterdam -- with passengers from Europe and India -- came to resemble a scene from a movie when the crew called for a doctor because of a medical emergency, The Boston Globe reported.

"Everybody was there to help," said Dr. Natarajan Raman, a radiation oncologist from Minneapolis who helped deliver the child. "People offered baby food, people brought things, people vacated their seats."

Dr. Paresh Thakkar -- medical director of the Methuen (Mass.) Health & Rehabilitation Center, who also helped with the delivery -- told the Globe he examined the 8 1/2 month pregnant Ugandan woman and felt the baby's head.

When asked about landing the plane, the former emergency room physician said, "No, it's an emergency and we will do it here."

Thirty minutes later, somewhere over Canada, the 6 1/2-pound baby girl named Sasha was born.

The baby and mother were taken to Massachusetts General Hospital, where they were reported in good condition.

Woman sues neighbor after football arrest

BLUE ASH, Ohio, Jan. 2 (UPI) -- An 88-year-old Ohio woman who was arrested after refusing to return a football to a 13-year-old neighbor has filed a lawsuit against the boy's parents.

Edna Jester of Blue Ash claims in her Hamilton County Common Pleas Court lawsuit that her health has suffered as a result of the emotional distress brought on by footballs, Frisbees and other items belonging to her neighbors that land in her yard, the Cincinnati Enquirer reported.

The suit seeks unspecified monetary damages from Jester's neighbors, Paul and Kelly Tanis, who have five children.

"It's a very silly suit," Kelly Tanis said Wednesday. "We haven't really seen or heard from Edna since any of this happened. And now what we have heard comes from her lawyer."

Jester was arrested Oct. 16 after she refused a police officer's order to return the 13-year-old's football after it landed in her yard and she took it inside. The Blue Ash city solicitor and city prosecutor later dropped the theft charge against Jester.

"In reality, we worry," Kelly Tanis said. "We can't afford a lawyer. We have five kids. And you never know how something like this might turn out."

Calendar highlights city's derelict areas

HAYLE, England, Jan. 2 (UPI) -- A British man said a calendar he created from pictures of broken-down areas in his hometown has gained surprising popularity.

Geoffrey Holman, 53, said the Hayle, England, calendar -- which includes pictures of an abandoned supermarket and a garage site that has fallen into disrepair -- was meant as a parting shot against the Penwith District Council, which will be dissolved in April and replaced with the Cornwall unitary authority, The Daily Telegraph reported.

"For years I have been creating hell about the state of the town and the theft of sand from the harbor," Holman said. "The calendar started off as a bit of a joke and I printed 150 copies but I am already down to the last handful. It is a light-hearted thing which has snowballed."

The calendar, which pairs the pictures with often-sarcastic captions, has drawn criticism from some local officials.

"I am a bit disappointed. I sympathize with his frustrations but it doesn't help the town or business people," said Jeremy Joslin, chairman of Hayle Chamber of Commerce. "It is quite witty but it doesn't have a positive impact -- I would rather Geoff did something positive like join the town council."

Group tying shoes together for charity

NASHVILLE, Jan. 2 (UPI) -- The international charitable group, Soles4Souls, says it wanted to bring attention to its efforts by tying thousands of shoes together in Nashville.

Group members said in an attempt to support the Soles4Souls goal of giving underprivileged people access to footwear, they were planning on tying together 26,000 shoes, The (Nashville) Tennessean said.

Members began tying together the thousands of shoes Wednesday at the Opry Mills shopping mall. They expected the "shoe-shoe train" to reach almost twice the length of the nearly mile-long mall.

If the group is able to connect all of the shoes as planned, the shoe rope should surpass the current world record.

National Geographic Kids Magazine holds the record with an 8,700-foot-long line of 10, 512 attached shoes.

"All we do is wake up and strive to put shoes on somebody's feet," David Graben, the group's executive vice president, told the Tennessean.