Jockstrip: The world as we know it.

Billboard asks if Bush is missed

WYOMING, Minn., Feb. 9 (UPI) -- A billboard along an interstate highway in rural Minnesota has a simple message -- a picture of former President George W. Bush and the question "Miss me yet?"

The sign has been up for about a month but only recently began attracting national attention. Speculation also began about who was paying for it.

A spokeswoman for Schubert and Hoey Outdoor Advertising in Minneapolis told Minnesota Public Radio there's a simple answer: "A group of small business owners who feel like Washington is against them."

Reaction to the billboard has been mixed in Wyoming, a small town about 30 miles north of Minneapolis, observers say.

"We've heard from quite a few customers about it," Sara Chouinard, an employee of the Nesting Grounds coffee house, told KSTP-TV. "Some people think it's pretty amusing. And other people find it insulting."

Mayor Sheldon Anderson said he has been approached by people offering to make donations for the billboard, but he has been unable to help them since he was not involved.

Couple to be paid for 'death' error

MALMO, Sweden, Feb. 9 (UPI) -- The Swedish tax agency has been ordered to pay damages to a 79-year-old woman who was mistakenly classified as dead.

In addition to a $3,400 payment to Ingrid Stahl of Malmo, the agency must also pay $2,050 in damages to her husband, The Local reported.

"It has been a terrible time. It is still tough, but we try to just let it go," Ingrid Stahl told the Swedish news agency TT.

The couple learned in April last year that Ingrid Stahl had been legally dead for a month when a supermarket chain and the state gambling agency tried to get her charge cards back. The error was the result of confusion between her identification number and someone else's.

Getting the mistake corrected took months, the couple said. While she was still considered dead, letters came addressed to Ingrid Stahl's estate.

Message in bottle yields response

SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 9 (UPI) -- A group of California fishermen who sent a message in a bottle two years ago said they were delighted when someone found the bottle and even sent a reply.

The fishermen, from the San Francisco and Monterey Bay areas, said they tossed the bottle into the water just south of San Diego in August 2007 with a message about Bob Dubcich, a friend of theirs who died from a rare form of cancer, KSBW-TV, Salinas, Calif., reported Monday.

The men said they enclosed $20 with the note to increase the chances of someone coming forward after finding it, which they said felt like sending their friend out to sea for a last voyage.

"(We said) if anyone found the bottle, send it back and we'd send you $100 so we made sure we'd get it back," John Saunders said.

Saunders said he and his friends were shocked by how far the bottle had traveled -- to the Philippines.

"To send him on a trip for 10,000 miles was bigger and better than anything we'd ever expected," Saunders said.

The fishermen said the man who found the bottle in the Philippines and sent it back to them has more than $100 coming.

"If he ever comes to America, he's going fishing with us. We're taking him, period," Saunders said.

Man aims for chocolate construction record

AURONZO DI CADORE, Italy, Feb. 9 (UPI) -- An Italian man said he is vying for Guinness World Record fame by creating a 26-foot scale model of Venice's St. Mark's bell tower completely out of chocolate.

Mirco Della Vecchia said he will unveil the 17 1/2-ton confection during the March 5-7 "Chocolating the Dolomites" festival in the resort town of Auronzo di Cadore, ANSA reported Monday.

Della Vecchia, who used more than 8 tons of pure chocolate from Calceta, Ecuador, said he has an eye on the record for tallest construction in chocolate, which is currently held by a Belgian.

The confectioner said he has sculpted a mold of his creation and will pour the chocolate in after it has been through a special industrial blender, which is scheduled to arrive Feb. 16.