UPI NewsTrack Quirks in the News

Jobless gather for games in New York

NEW YORK, April 1 (UPI) -- Organizers of the Unemployment Olympics at New York's Tompkins Square Park said dozens of jobless people turned out to throw phones and bash pinatas.

Nick Goddard, 26, an unemployed computer programmer, said he came up with the idea for Tuesday's event as a way of easing the stress of some of the city's jobless population, the New York Post reported Wednesday.

"I wanted everyone to have fun," he said. "This seemed really cathartic for people."

The event's games included "Office Telephone Toss," a sprinting "Race to the Unemployment Office," a stress-relieving pinata and a rousing round of "Pin the Blame on the Boss."

While the games did not bring participants any closer to a paycheck, winners received prizes and gift certificates donated by local businesses.

Goddard said he is hoping his first Unemployment Olympics also proves to be his last.

"It would be hypocritical to do it with a job and I have my fingers crossed that I'll get a job soon," he said.

Researcher: Doubleday baseball claim wrong

COLLEGE STATION, Texas, April 1 (UPI) -- A Texas A&M University researcher says the historical stance that Abner Doubleday invented baseball is incorrect.

Texas A&M said in a news release Tuesday history Professor David Vaught said while Doubleday has been credited with creating the U.S. pastime in 1839, he has found cases of the sport being played in New York before that date.

"The game was played in upstate New York long before Doubleday was supposed to have invented it in a cow pasture in Cooperstown , N.Y., in 1839," Vaught said.

Vaught maintains baseball was not invented by any single individual, claiming instead the sport evolved from multiple games into the baseball of today.

The researcher said the 1907 findings of a commission created by National League President Abraham Mills that Doubleday had invented baseball helped create the "myth" of the sport's origins.

"It's a myth that has been perpetuated through the years that has become accepted, but it's just not true," Vaught said in the university release.

911 call: Woman locked inside car

KISSIMMEE , Fla., April 1 (UPI) -- Authorities in Florida said a woman dialed 911 to report that she had locked herself in her car and the electrical system wasn't working.

The Kissimmee, Fla., woman told the dispatcher that the locks wouldn't work due to the electrical trouble but apologized after she was instructed to lift the manual lock with her hand, WESH-TV, Orlando, Fla., reported Wednesday.

"Um, I'm sorry," the embarrassed woman said after unlocking the door.

Officials stressed that the incident was a serious call and not an early April Fools' Day joke.

Taiwan paper prints panda prank

TAIPEI, Taiwan, April 1 (UPI) -- A major Taiwan newspaper printed an April Fools' Day prank Wednesday that claimed two pandas received as a gift from mainland China were disguised forest bears.

The Taipei Times claimed the latest friction between Taiwan and China centered on Tuan Tuan and Yuan Yuan, a pair of pandas given to the Taipei Zoo as a gift from China, The Times of London reported Wednesday.

Taipei Zoo official Connie Liu was quoted in the hoax story as saying she became suspicious after the pandas, a species famous for their low libidos, began spending all of their time having sex. She said she then discovered that the animals were Wenzhou brown forest bears dyed to disguise them as rare pandas.

"Their roots began to show," the paper quoted Liu as saying.

Pandas also made April Fools' headlines with Google, which inserted cartoon bears over the usual yellow figure on the Street View feature of Google Maps, The Times reported.