Watercooler Stories

Facebook party pics lead to eviction

FOLKESTONE, England, April 14 (UPI) -- A British landlady said she has evicted two tenants who posted pictures of her property being trashed during wild parties on Facebook.

Carolyn Lorimer, 26, said the tenants, a couple in their early 20s, fled the Folkestone, England, home after hearing of the eviction, and left her with thousands of dollars worth of damage to the house and unpaid bills for rent and utilities, the Daily Mail reported.

"When I logged on to Facebook and saw the pictures I was absolutely shocked," Lorimer said. "I recognized it as my flat straight away and I couldn't believe what I was seeing -- people jumping on the furniture, dancing on the kitchen table, holes in the walls and smashed TVs. It looked like a slum."

The landlady said the damage included the destruction of a recently installed carpet.

"It's the first flat I have ever let out and I never expected it to go wrong like this -- it's just been a total nightmare," she said.

Dead goat found outside Wrigley Field

CHICAGO, April 14 (UPI) -- Police in Chicago said a dead goat was found hanging Monday from a statue of late Cubs announcer Harry Caray outside Wrigley Field.

Town Hall District police said they found the goat hanging from a rope tied to one of the statue's outstretched arms at about 2:40 a.m. Monday after following a tip from a 911 caller, the Chicago Sun-Times News Group reported.

There was no damage to the property and it wasn't known how the goat died, police said.

Investigators said a similar incident occurred in 2007 when officers found a butchered goat hanging from the statue.

The Cubs' so-called Billy Goat Curse stems from an Oct. 6, 1945, incident involving tavern owner Billy Sianis, who had purchased a box seat for his goat at Game 4 of the World Series at Wrigley Field. After he was ordered to remove the goat, Sianis claimed to have placed a curse on the team to prevent it from ever hosting another World Series game at Wrigley Field.

The Cubs haven't been in the World Series since 1945 and haven't won a World Series since 1908.

School: 'Eloquent' pretty, 'vomit' ugly

STARKVILLE, Miss., April 14 (UPI) -- A Mississippi State University professor said a survey of students suggests "eloquent" is a beautiful word while "vomit" is ugly.

Robert Wolverton Sr., a classics professor at the school, said his annual survey asks students to submit words that they consider to be "beautiful" or "ugly."

This year's survey, which involved 75 students, yielded 148 "beautiful" words, including eloquent, which was submitted by six students; love, which was chosen by four students; symphony, which received four submissions; and beautiful, which was chosen by three respondents.

Students submitted 138 "ugly" words -- including six mentions for vomit, five submissions for moist, five mentions for puke and four for ugly.

Wolverton said fewer students chose religious words as beautiful than in previous years. He said words with multiple syllables were more likely to be considered beautiful while monosyllabic words were more likely to be considered ugly.

Epileptic emu farmer frets over windmills

GULLIVERS COVE, Nova Scotia, April 14 (UPI) -- A Canadian emu farmer in northwestern Nova Scotia said he is concerned a proposed windmill nearby will kill his birds or trigger his epileptic seizures.

Davey and Debi VanTassel run the Ocean Breeze Emu Farm in Gullivers Cove, and told The Chronicle-Herald newspaper in Halifax one of 20 proposed wind turbines will be about a half mile from their property.

The couple said emus have been known to die from noise and vibration. They said a test mill erected last year in the county drove coyotes from the area to their farm, where five emus were killed this winter.

Debi VanTassel told a recent community meeting she feared for her husband's health, as the flickering of sunlight through the windmill's blades could trigger epileptic seizures.

She said they avoid dances where strobe lights are used and they have no wallpaper in their home, as patterns can trigger a seizure, the report said.

Their town is considering a proposal to erect 20 turbine towers with an output of 30 megawatts, the newspaper said.