Watercooler Stories

Lawyer: Loophole protects public nudity

NEW YORK, Nov. 25 (UPI) -- A New York lawyer whose client was cleared of lewdness charges said a legal loophole allows public nudity in the city.

Tom Hillgardner said prosecutors dropped their case against Kathleen Neill, 26, because they were afraid going forward would expose a legal loophole allowing most forms of public nudity, the New York Post reported.

Neill, who stripped down and posed for nude pictures for photographer Zach Hyman at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, had been charged with an exposure statute, public lewdness and endangering the welfare of children due to the presence of a crowd of children who witnessed the unauthorized photo shoot.

"My argument is, you can go stark, raving, completely nude in Times Square, or Rockefeller Center or the Metropolitan Museum of Art," Hillgardner said.

The lawyer said case law protects non-sexual nude physical activity, such as sports, from lewdness charges.

He said the crowd of schoolchildren had already been exposed to nude art at the museum.

"Perchance they looked at a boob!" Hillgardner joked.

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Jew's '36 German high jump record restored

NEW YORK, Nov. 25 (UPI) -- A 95-year-old woman in New York says she is happy to see her 1936 German national high jump record, disallowed by the Nazis, restored.

Margaret Bergmann Lambert, whose high jump record of 5 feet, 3 inches was disallowed by the Nazis because she is Jewish, said she was happy finally to see her record recognized after 73 years, the New York Post reported.

"I'm very happy they finally did what they did -- I was a damned good high jumper," said Lambert, who was kicked off the German Olympic team just prior to the Berlin Games and fled the country shortly afterward.

Lambert moved to the United States and had two children with her husband Bruno, 99.

"It took a hell of a long time for them to do it, but I'm not going to do cartwheels over it -- and I couldn't now," she said of the reinstatement of her record.

"I used to hate everything German. But I've made up my mind to not hold it against the next generations."

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28 tons of dead fish found in Swedish dock

MUSKO, Sweden, Nov. 25 (UPI) -- Swedish authorities said the agency responsible for military maintenance could face charges related to 28 tons of dead fish found in a dock.

Prosecutors said they were exploring possible negligence charges against the Swedish Fortifications Agency after the 28 tons of dead roach were found when a dock was emptied for cleaning at an underground naval base in Musko, The Local reported.

Christer Andersson, a property manager with the Fortifications Agency, said officials were shocked to discover the huge quantity of fish.

"We emptied other docks as recently as a few weeks before emptying this dock and only came across the occasional fish. It's a bit of a mystery actually," he said. "Roach move in a very strange manner and they often move about in large schools. If we're unlucky, a very large school might have got into this slipway and been left behind when we closed the outermost gates in order to be able to empty the water," he added.

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Group slams guinea pig killing sentences

AALBORG, Denmark, Nov. 25 (UPI) -- A Danish animal welfare group criticized the suspended jail sentences given to six men who tortured and killed a guinea pig.

Officials with animal welfare society Dyrenes Beskyttelse said they were disappointed the six men received suspended sentences and were not barred from owning pets in the future, The Copenhagen Post reported.

The northern Jutland court sentenced three of the men to 20 day suspended jail terms, two of the men to 30 day suspended sentences and the man who purchased the guinea pig was sentenced to a 40 day suspended jail sentence.

Five of the men were also ordered to pay fines of $144 each.

"We wanted the judge to give a clear signal that there must be clear-cut consequences if animals are abused," said Britta Riis, head of Dyrenes Beskyttelse. "We're especially disappointed that the young men's right to own animals wasn't revoked. Not necessarily for the rest of their lives, but at least for some period."