Watercooler Stories

Rules would ban buggy smoking

NEW YORK, Dec. 31 (UPI) -- The New York City Health Department is proposing new rules governing horses in Central Park, including a ban on smoking in buggies.

Department officials said the rules, which could be enforced as early as March, would ban buggy drivers from making their horses work after 3 a.m. and force them to give the horses five vacation days per year, the New York Post reported.

The regulations, which are scheduled to be the subject of a Feb. 3 public hearing, would create the city's first outdoor smoking ban by barring buggy drivers and their passengers from lighting up.

"Just like cabdrivers, they shouldn't be smoking," said Daniel Kass, the Health Department's acting assistant commissioner for environmental health.

70-year-old charged with slapping teen

STOCKHOLM, Sweden, Dec. 31 (UPI) -- A Swedish pensioner was fined $420 for slapping a 12-year-old boy who had insulted him, authorities say.

A Swedish court fined Ronald Fasth, 70, for hitting the boy who had called him an "old fart" before riding away on his bicycle. Fasth admits assaulting the boy in July at Folkets Park in Varamo where he was a volunteer, but says it was to maintain his dignity, the Swedish news agency TT reported.

"You have to demand a little respect; otherwise I might have gotten slapped myself," he said.

Fasth said he was unsure whether he would appeal the court's ruling.

"I think this (decision) is wrong. It's not about the money, it's the principle. I haven't yet decided if I will appeal," he said.

Bar sued over falling moose head

NEW YORK, Dec. 31 (UPI) -- A New York woman's lawsuit against a bar claims she suffered injuries and "embarrassment" when a stuffed moose head fell from a wall and struck her on the head.

Raina Kumra's lawsuit, filed in New York Supreme Court, says she was in the White Slab Palace at about 1 a.m. Oct. 2 when the mounted moose head "dislodged and struck plaintiff on the head," the New York Post reported.

"The taxidermy moose head weighed approximately 150 pounds, with antlers spanning over three feet," the court papers said.

The suit states Kumra suffered "chronic neck pain" in addition to other "severe personal injuries," including "embarrassment."

"It was the bar's fault," Kumra, 32, told the New York Daily News. "I was injured and in an embarrassing way."

The suit seeks unspecified monetary damages.

Police: Man called 911 for ride to bar

OLDSMAR, Fla., Dec. 31 (UPI) -- A Florida man arrested for making a false 911 call to score a ride to a bar was subdued with a stun gun after kicking a deputy in the knees, authorities allege.

Pinellas County sheriff's deputies said Gregory Oras, 37, of Oldsmar called 911 three times about 1 a.m. Tuesday from outside of a bar in Oldsmar and told dispatchers he had a broken nose and bleeding ears, the St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times reported.

Deputies said they arrived to find Oras uninjured and asking for a ride to Hennessy's, another bar in the city. The deputies said they placed Oras under arrest for making false emergency calls and put him in handcuffs, but he refused to put his feet inside the squad car and kicked one deputy in the knees.

Oras was subdued with a Taser and taken to Pinellas County Jail on charges of making a false 911 call and battery of a law enforcement officer.