Jockstrip: The world as we know it.

At 111, she's New York's oldest resident

NEW YORK, Feb. 8 (UPI) -- Jane Gilsenan has lived in three centuries, seen 19 U.S. presidents, is New York's oldest resident, and one of the oldest people in the world, authorities say.

Gilsenan, 111, was born in New York in 1898, when Teddy Roosevelt was leading the Rough Riders in the Spanish-American War, the New York Post reported Sunday.

"I'm lucky to live as long as I have so far," Gilsenan said last week in her home in a Staten Island convent. "I had nothing to do with it. It was wished on me."

Her memories date back to when she was 10 years old, Gilsenan says, learning to skate by holding the railings of a Manhattan church. She can recall what life was like during the Great Depression and remembers her brothers serving in World War II.

Never married because she "didn't meet the right guy," she worked as a legal secretary until retiring in her early 1980s, the Post said.

There are 73 people in the world older than 110, the Gerontology Research Group -- an online research group -- says. The world's oldest living person is said to be Kama Chinen, a 114-year-old Japanese woman.

Polar Plunge raises Special Olympics funds

NEWPORT, Ky., Feb. 8 (UPI) -- A Kentucky-Ohio Special Olympics fundraiser said it had teams with names like "The Frozen Zombies" plunging into an outdoor pool of sub-freezing temperatures.

Dozens of teams, totaling 481 people, took the annual Polar Plunge in Newport, Ky., and raised $117,703 Saturday, beating the 2009 record of $97,000, the Cincinnati Enquirer reported.

"It was a great turnout, considering the weather," Paige Ludwig, the marketing and development director for Special Olympics Ohio, said.

This is the plunge's 11th year, and the fifth time the two states' Special Olympics fundraisers have collaborated on the event, the newspaper said.

Features included a human cockroach, who belly-flopped into the pool, splashing onlookers. "Cupid" shot fake arrows and a weighty "Chippendale dancer" stripped his tuxedo to music -- in the manner of the late comedian Chris Farley -- before jumping in.

"My niece has Down (syndrome) and she's going to be a Special Olympian," said one intrepid Bridgetown soul, who was plunging for the second time. "I'm doing this because it's for a great cause."

"It's kind of like riding a roller coaster. Once you get into that car, you're along for the ride. It's the same thing with (the) Polar Plunge. Once you walk onto that platform, you're jumping," veteran plunger Jeff Iker of Northern Kentucky University's "Norse Force" team, said.

Storm not part of bride's wedding plans

PITTSBURGH, Feb. 8 (UPI) -- A new bride who said she always wanted a little bit of snow for her wedding conceded she did not expect a major snowstorm for the nuptials in Pittsburgh.

The wedding of Jen Mackin and Army Lt. Raymond Fisher went on as planned Saturday despite the snowstorm but a number of guests were unable to attend, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported.

Mackin said her repeated prayers for snow on her wedding day were answered in a big way but the overabundance of snow kept about two-thirds of her 300 guests away.

"(God) answered my prayer, a little too much," she said.

The priest scheduled to marry the couple was snowed but another priest stepped in.

Mackin insisted she never considered canceling her big day.

"This is fine," she told the Post-Gazette of the weather issues. "It's an exciting day ... no way I was going to cancel."

Mayor gets prison for stealing lingerie

PRESTON, England, Feb. 8 (UPI) -- The mayor of a small coastal town in northern England has been sentenced to two years in prison for stealing women's underwear.

Ian Stafford, 59, mayor of Preesall and Knott End in Lancashire, pleaded guilty to four counts of breaking and entering, the Daily Mail reported.

"I feel deeply ashamed at the whole scenario because I have hurt people who have been excellent friends -- I could not wish for better," Stafford said. "I wish I had said something to someone earlier. I am not proud of any of this, I am sickened. I wish I could turn the clock back."

Stafford, a bachelor, worked as a handyman in Knott End-on-Sea, a small town on Morecambe Bay. He had keys to many of the houses in town.

Investigators say he was caught on videotape stripped to the waste, taking underwear out of drawers and using it for sexual acts. Police said they found more than $1,000 worth of lingerie in his home, some of it stored in bags labeled with the names of the original owners.