Watercooler Stories

Judge apologizes for detaining workers

MILTON, Fla., Aug. 28 (UPI) -- A Florida judge has apologized for having a pair of maintenance workers held because she felt the courtroom was too cold.

Circuit Judge Marci Goodman summoned the workers to her courtroom Monday at the Santa Rosa County Courthouse in Milton and instructed a security guard to "tell them I'll threaten them with jail" after they refused to enter due to another recent confrontation with Goodman about the temperature, the Pensacola (Fla.) News Journal reported Thursday.

The judge is heard on part of an audio recording from the hearing, which concerned a juvenile case, ordering the security guard to have the two workers held in an adjacent room while maintenance supervisor Thad Allen worked to shut off the air conditioning. Goodman can be heard in the recording telling Allen she would not set the workers free until the air conditioning was shut off.

Goodman, who has been a judge since 2001, apologized for the incident Wednesday. She said frustration with the temperature caused her to lose her cool.

"I think I could have handled it better, and I should have handled it better," she said. "I have apologized to them. I take full responsibility."

Historic hotel may become sex club

GLOUCESTER, England, Aug. 28 (UPI) -- A British planning official has praised plans to transform a historic hotel into a daytime restaurant and nighttime adult sex club.

Mystique, the company that submitted the plans to officials in Gloucester, England, said it wants to transform the city's 170-year-old New County Hotel into a restaurant with a "strong vegetarian/pescatarian theme" by day and a private members-only club at night that would include a "fetish room for adult enjoyment," The Daily Telegraph reported.

The company said the sex club would be aimed at the gay community, "swinging couples" and those following "alternative sexual lifestyles."

Mike Gethin, Gloucester City Council's top planning officer, backed the sex club plans.

"This application has been carefully assessed, and it is considered that its determination cannot be based on moral issues because they are not planning matters," he said. "The proposal would create an active use to the ground-floor street frontage of the building, which would add vitality and vibrancy (to) this part of Southgate Street."

The City Council's planning committee is to discuss the application Tuesday.

Cuban retirees resell news as toilet paper

HAVANA, Aug. 28 (UPI) -- A Cuban retiree says the country's toilet paper shortage has created a lucrative business for seniors -- buying and reselling newspapers as an alternative.

The Havana retiree said he and other seniors line up before dawn to buy surplus newspapers from distribution points for factories and offices that have closed for economic reasons and shortages of electricity and raw materials, The Miami Herald reported.

The man, who requested anonymity to avoid possible trouble with authorities, said the seniors buy the newspapers, including the Communist party's Granma, for 20 Cuban cents -- about .007 U.S. cents. They then resell them to neighbors for up to 20 Cuban pesos, about 71 U.S. cents, for use as toilet paper.

Cuban officials were quoted by the official Radio Rebelde as saying the government plans to import a lot of toilet paper by the end of the year to ease the shortage.

Woman arrested in air freshener attack

NICEVILLE, Fla., Aug. 28 (UPI) -- Police in Florida said they arrested a woman for attacking a smoker with air freshener sprayed from a can.

Niceville police allege the woman was waving the can of Glade Potpourri Air Freshener around the other woman's head while dispensing its contents at a Niceville apartment complex Friday, the Northwest Florida Daily News of Fort Walton Beach reported.

The woman then allegedly pointed the can at the back of the other woman's head and sprayed it for nearly a full minute. Police said she told the victim she would keep using the spray can as long as the victim kept smoking in front of the attacker's apartment.

"I will do it again, and take it to the Supreme Court because I have the right to breathe fresh air," the police report quoted the suspect as saying.

The woman was arrested and charged with battery.