Watercooler Stories

Police warn of amorous fake producer

BOSTON, Sept. 28 (UPI) -- Boston police say a man is posing as a movie producer in an attempt to gain sexual favors from women in exchange for non-existent roles.

Boston police said at least three women have complained about the fake producer and a suspect has been identified but not charged in connection with the man's misleading postings on legitimate casting Web sites, The Boston Globe said.

Boston Police Lt. Detective Charles Wilson said the man has aspiring actresses act out seductive scenes before making sexual advances.

"He's very convincing, and of course it's all a fraud," Wilson said. "He has them read a script that's explicit, and then he has them act it out."

The unidentified man, who operated under the banner My 3 Sons Productions, denied the women's allegations, saying he is actually working on a legitimate movie script.

"I had conversations with probably 20 different actors, male and female," he told the Globe.

"There were a couple of people who tried to cause trouble with me, but there was nothing sexual," he added.

Acorns a growing threat in Massachusetts

BROOKLINE, Mass., Sept. 28 (UPI) -- Massachusetts residents say they are under siege from this year's large crop of acorns as the hard nuts have been falling from trees like rain.

Greg Roberson and Neil McIsaac of Brookline, Mass., said they routinely encounter the nuts as they fall from area oak trees, creating safety hazards while in the air and once on the ground, The Boston Globe reported.

"Every time I hear one, I think it's a kid throwing a rock at me," Roberson said. "They're falling everywhere."

"I've nearly broken my neck several times," McIsaac offered. "There are tons of them."

Wesley Autio, a professor at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, said this year's crop of acorns was particularly large given this year's bountiful rains.

"We get a good crop every few years, but I don't recall one as heavy as this," he told the Globe. "We already have a significant coating on our lawn, and most of them still aren't down."

But at least the increased acorn crop is being enjoyed by someone, according to Don McCasland, Blue Hill Observatory & Science Center program director.

"The squirrels here are going crazy -- it's smorgasbord galore," McCasland said.

Study links Einstein letters to e-mails

EVANSTON, Ill., Sept. 28 (UPI) -- Researchers at Northwestern University in Illinois say pen and paper letters written by geniuses like Albert Einstein are very similar to today's e-mails.

Researchers at the university in Evanston, Ill., said in a news release a new study of human behavior at the college found letters from 16 famed performers, politicians, scientists and writers were written in cycles similar to modern e-mails.

By studying letter-writing patterns of the historical figures -- who also included Charles Darwin and Sigmund Freud -- Northwestern researchers found the great minds did not write letters randomly. Instead, the researchers said, they wrote multiple letters in one sitting with no particular order of importance.

The study findings were similar in nature to a previous Northwestern study on e-mail behavior and offered clues to how humans make choices in everyday activities, lead researcher Luis Amaral said.

"We are interested in identifying and understanding patterns of human behavior, in learning how we make choices," the chemical and biological engineering professor said. "There are patterns to how we spend our days, and these models of probability, of how people allocate their time to do certain tasks, can be applied to many different areas."

Police: Karaoke singer attacked in bar

STAMFORD, Conn., Sept. 28 (UPI) -- Police in Connecticut said six women attacked a karaoke singer because they disliked her performance.

Investigators said the victim, a 25-year-old Stamford woman, was singing at about 11:30 p.m. EDT Sept. 23 at Bobby Valentine's Sports Gallery Cafe in Stamford when the six suspects shouted derogatory statements, The (Norwalk, Conn.) Hour reported.

The victim suffered a chipped tooth and bruises and was treated and released at Stamford Hospital.

Lt. Sean Cooney, a Stamford police spokesman, said the fight broke out after the singer told the other women they could leave if they did not like her singing.

The alleged attackers were charged with third-degree assault, conspiracy to commit third-degree assault and breach of peace. They were each released on $500 bond and are scheduled to appear in court Oct. 2.

Police identified the women as Diana Strickland, 20, of Stamford; Martisa Chambers, of Norwalk; Danielle Swanson, 19, of Norwalk; Deja Hines, of Stamford; Michelle Rosedom, 19, of Stamford; and Chaniel McRae, 20, of Norwalk.