Watercooler Stories

Gnawing rodents blamed for rail outages

LONDON, Feb. 3 (UPI) -- Recent breakdowns in British rail service have been caused by rats and mice cutting through cables, officials say.

In one case, a hole made by a rodent in a high-voltage power cable in Cheshire last month has been blamed for an outage that delayed 99 trains on the West Coast mainline and led to the cancellation of 20 runs, The Daily Telegraph reported Wednesday.

Another exceptionally ill-timed outage between Preston and Lancaster caused the cancellation of 107 trains and delayed 289. A special train for Carlisle United fans traveling to a cup match against Everton was among those canceled.

A Network Rail spokesman said laying steel-armored replacement cable along 20,000 miles of track is expected to take two years and cost millions of pounds.

Eric Martlew, who represents Carlisle in Parliament, was one of the many soccer fans delayed Jan. 2.

"It's a nonsense that the whole of the West Coast mainline could have been brought to a standstill by a mouse," Martlew said. "The point is it should never have happened -- the wires should have been protected and mighty mouse shouldn't have been allowed to stop Carlisle United fans in their tracks in this way."

City bans 'Lady Liberty' wavers

BRISTOL, Conn., Feb. 3 (UPI) -- Officials with a Connecticut tax service company said city officials have banned them from employing outside wavers in Statue of Liberty costumes.

Liberty Tax Service officials said the city of Bristol told them the employees in "Lady Liberty" costumes outside the business violate zoning regulations against businesses employing devices including pennants, flags and balloons for promotion or advertising, WFSB-TV, Hartford, Conn., reported Wednesday.

The company officials said they do not agree with the city that the costumes qualify as "devices" and they are appealing to authorities. Bosses said 25 part-time employees could lose their job if the city stands by its plan.

Wash. man wants tapeworm on state seal

ORTING, Wash., Feb. 3 (UPI) -- A Washington state man has filed an initiative to change the state seal to a well-dressed tapeworm "attached to the taxpayer's rectum."

James Vaughn of Orting filed an initiative this week with the office of Secretary of State Sam Reed to replace the current seal, an image of George Washington, to a picture of "a tapeworm dressed in a three-pieced suit attached to the taxpayer's rectum," The Seattle Times reported Wednesday.

The papers filed by Vaughn, which include a few pages complaining about the taxes paid by residents and business in the state, said the tapeworm image would be surrounded by the grammatically awkward phrase: "Committee to sucking the life out of each and every taxpayer."

Reed spokesman David Ammons wrote in the office's blog that such initiatives are not uncommon.

"For five bucks and an idea, anyone can file an Initiative to the People -- and they do. Most are very serious, while others can be kooky or simply send a message," he said.

School drops logo to avoid Chrysler suit

LAKE MARY, Fla., Feb. 3 (UPI) -- A Florida high school said it is changing back to its old ram logo to avoid legal action from the Chrysler Group about the latest version of the goat.

The Seminole County school system said Lake Mary High, which adopted a ram logo similar to the big-horned emblem on the Dodge Ram truck a few years ago, will return to an older version of its logo after Chrysler, which manufactures Dodge trucks, threatened to take officials to court, the Orlando (Fla.) Sentinel reported Wednesday.

"We are going to comply with the communication we got from Chrysler's attorney," school board attorney Ned Julian said.

Julian said the high school will first phase out its T-shirts and other merchandise bearing the offending logo and Chrysler has agreed to give officials until June to remove the massive logo from the center of the gym floor.

Cat reunited with owners 14 years later

WINNIPEG, Manitoba, Feb. 3 (UPI) -- A Canadian family that gave up on a lost 3-year-old cat near Winnipeg, Manitoba, 14 years ago has her back safe and sound.

Ingrid Kerger said she got a telephone call from an animal hospital asking if she had ever owned a female orange tabby cat or lived in Lockport, about 20 miles northeast of the city, the Winnipeg Free Press reported.

The answer was "yes" to both, and the clinic worker said a serial number tattoo on the cat had linked it to Kerger's old address.

She said Tiger Lily disappeared Oct. 12, 1996, and the family assumed the cat had been killed by a fox.

Meanwhile, Kerger and her family are baffled as to how Tiger Lily, now underweight but otherwise healthy, survived.

"If only she could talk, what a story," Kerger said.

She said she suspects the cat understands where she is, as it slept its first night with her son, who is now 23, the newspaper said.