Watercooler Stories

$9.99 big-screen TV too good to be true

WASHINGTON, Aug. 12 (UPI) -- U.S. retailer Best Buy says it will not honor an ad that mistakenly offered a big-screen TV for $9.99, but some consumers say they will insist on it.

The Best Buy Web site featured an ad for several hours Wednesday offering a Samsung 52-inch LCD HDTV for $9.99, a substantial price cut for an item that normally goes for $1,699.99. Consumers at Best Buy's Web site and other consumer electronics sites posted notices that they had ordered up to 10 sets, The Washington Post reported.

Best Buy then posted a notice on its Web site saying it would not fill the online orders for the $9.99 sets.

"We sincerely apologize for this error and make every effort to ensure issues like this do not happen," the statement said. "While we are truly embarrassed that this occurred, Best Buy will not be able to honor the $9.99 price."

Best Buy said company policy allows it to refuse to honor prices published in error.

However, some customers have consulted lawyers, and one shopper has set up a Web site, TenDollarHDTV.com, devoted to pressuring the company to honor the deal.

Church bell resumes when locals bang pots

MEZZEMA, Italy, Aug. 13 (UPI) -- Residents of a small Italian town said their local priest has resumed ringing local church bells after a pause requested by the town's only tourist.

Father Alfredo De Simoni of the town of Mezzema on a Ligurian hilltop acceded to the tourist's request that the church bells not be rung between 10 p.m. and 8 a.m., but residents of the village of 85 people protested the absence of their usual 7 a.m. wake-up bell by taking to the streets banging pots and pans, ANSA reported.

The villagers further protested the move by boycotting Sunday mass and De Simoni resumed the regular schedule of bell ringing Wednesday to great celebration by the townspeople.

Claim: Name spelling nixed Palin X-Box

JUNEAU, Alaska, Aug. 13 (UPI) -- A U.S. video game blogger has a theory about why a Sarah Palin-signed Xbox 360 was pulled from an eBay auction -- her first name appears to be misspelled.

Blogger Game Guy said the Xbox, which was purportedly signed by the former Alaska governor and 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee during a picnic before she announced her resignation as governor July 3, seems to lack the final "h" in the politician's first name, making it the alternate spelling "Sara," the St. Louis (Mo.) Post-Dispatch reported.

The Xbox 360 had been listed for $1.1 million on eBay as item No. 300335581705 with only one bid before it was pulled for unexplained reasons.

Pet deer has to go after five years

VICTORIA, British Columbia, Aug. 13 (UPI) -- A woman who domesticated an orphaned fawn five years ago on Canada's Vancouver Island has been told by provincial officials she has to give it up.

Janet Schwartz was notified July 15 by the British Columbia Environment Ministry the black-tailed deer she calls Bimbo must either be released into the wild or sent to a rehabilitation center, the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. reported.

Ministry wildlife biologist Kim Brunt said wildlife can't be kept as pets. Schwartz has vowed to fight the order, as she told the CBC the deer has its own bed and eats with her from the table.

"She eats all the same food I eat. She'll eat anything, bananas, apples, potatoes, cookies, candy, pop," Schwartz said.

She said Bimbo will rise on hind legs to give a hug, along with other domesticated activities.

"She'll give you kisses and she loves to dance to Elvis Presley. It's her favorite music," she said.

Schwartz said a friend brought the fawn to her five years ago after it was seen standing near its dead mother near the town of Ucluelet, some 180 miles northwest of Victoria.

"She's like a baby I never had. I don't want to see her go because I love her," Schwartz said.