Watercooler Stories

Student: Name large number 'hella'

DAVIS, Calif., March 5 (UPI) -- A University of California student is spearheading the effort to name the number 10 to the 27th power after popular slang term "hella."

Austin Sendek, a sophomore at the school's Davis campus, said he wants to name the number starting with 1 and ending with 27 zeros after the slang term for "very" or "really" now that the number is being used more frequently due to the study of space, KXTV, Sacramento, Calif., reported.

Sendek said his online petition for the cause has gained more than 23,000 signatures and he blogs about his efforts at makehellaofficial.blogspot.com.

"It's another way to honor Northern California colloquialism and turn it into actual science," the student said.

Gorilla mystery solved after 54 years

BRISTOL, England, March 5 (UPI) -- A 77-year-old British man revealed the temporary theft of a stuffed gorilla from a museum in 1956 was a student prank he perpetrated with two friends.

Fred Hooper, 77, said he and two friends sprung Alfred, a stuffed silverback gorilla that died in 1948 at England's Bristol Zoo, from the Bristol museum in 1956 while they were undergraduates at the University of Bristol, the Daily Mail reported.

"It was initially my idea. I was about 23 at the time and I thought it would be a great rag week jape," Hooper said. "We took Alfred because he was such a big Bristol personality and he was close by."

Hooper said he and his friends held onto the gorilla for about 60 hours before abandoning it in a nearby doctor's office for authorities to find.

"It was always our intention to return him and so the easiest thing was to take him to a doctor's waiting room which was just across the road," he said. "It was midday on a Saturday and we just carried him over and left him there."

Hooper's account of the events is backed up by photos in a scrapbook kept by one of his accomplices, Ron Morgan, who recently died at the age of 79.

Doctor: Dog-taping suspect not impaired

BOULDER, Colo., March 5 (UPI) -- An evaluation of a former University of Colorado student accused of taping a dog to a refrigerator found no evidence of impaired mental condition, records show.

Boulder County District Judge Maria Berkenkotter accepted the impaired mental condition plea entered by Abby Toll, 20, in December, but ordered an evaluation to be completed prior to her April 12 trial. The Colorado Institute of Mental Health doctor's report said Toll did not suffer from an impaired mental condition, meaning a mental state that would justify, excuse or mitigate the actions of a defendant, the Boulder Daily Camera reported.

Deputy District Attorney David Cheval filed a motion asking to call the doctor as an expert witness during the trial.

Toll was accused of using hair ties and packing tape to bind her boyfriend's 2-year-old shiba inu, Rex, before taping the dog to his refrigerator upside down.

Oregon DMV locations stop the Muzak

PORTLAND, Ore., March 5 (UPI) -- Oregon Driver and Motor Vehicles Services said complaints from employees and customers led them to stop the Muzak at 13 offices in the state.

DMV spokesman David House said several locations in Portland, as well as offices in Medford and Beaverton, are canceling their $160-a-month subscriptions to the instrumental music service in favor of looping safety videos at a lower volume, The (Portland) Oregonian reported.

"People complain on many topics," House said, "but this is one we have some control over."

House said the canceled subscriptions amount to savings of about $1,175 per month, but much of that is expected to go toward other DMV offices that have requested Muzak subscriptions.