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Card-playing record attempt comes up short

DETROIT, April 25 (UPI) -- An effort in Michigan to claim a Guinness World Record for holding the largest card-playing tournament has fallen short of the mark, organizers said.

The Wayne Rotary Foundation in Livonia, Mich., held a euchre tournament Saturday that attracted 589 entrants, only about half the number needed to snag the record, The Detroit News reported.

"We fell short," rotary President Robert Gilbert told the gathered players, "but you're going to have a good time. I really thought we could do it."

The record was set in 2008 in Mostoles, Spain, where 1,024 people played a card game called Mus, the Detroit Free Press said.

Euchre is a trick-taking card game most commonly played with four people in two partnerships.

Gilbert said the game is a "Midwest thing."

"It's Michigan, it's Ontario, Ohio, Illinois, Indiana," he said.

With a $25 fee to play, Rotary organizers said they hoped to raise $15,000 for community groups and projects, the Free Press reported.

Zoo 'drops' Steelers' Roethlisberger

PITTSBURGH, April 25 (UPI) -- Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, suspended for off-field behavior, has been "dropped" from a spot at the Pittsburgh zoo, officials said.

Roethlisberger's name was replaced on a tall pole the zoo uses to show elephants' height compared to people, WTAE-TV, Pittsburgh, reported.

The zoo has replaced Roethlisberger's name with that of Pittsburgh Penguins owner and NHL Hall of Famer Mario Lemieux, the television station said Friday.

Some zoo visitors had expressed concerns about Roethlisberger's name on the display, zoo spokeswoman Tracy Gray said.

Roethlisberger was accused of sexual assault by a 20-year-old woman in Milledgeville, Ga., in March. After a police investigation, no charges were filed.

The NFL suspended Roethlisberger for the Steelers' first six games of the 2010 football season.

Students get creative to snag prom dates

NEW YORK, April 25 (UPI) -- Students at a New York high school are going to great lengths in prom date appeals, in a practice that is gaining popularity, classmates say.

Stuyvesant High School seniors have donned costumes and made elaborate preparations to ask their intended partners to the senior prom, the New York Post reported Sunday.

Senior David Park, 18, enlisted two friends to help him invite Ronny Ho to the June 12 prom at New York's Waldorf-Astoria hotel. One friend dressed up in a dragon costume, the other as a horse, while Park wore a grey sweatshirt and a sign around his neck reading "shining armor."

As Ho watched, Park jumped on his "horse," attacked and "slew" the dragon, and then went on one knee in front of Ho with a long-stemmed rose, the Post said.

"Now that I've slain the dragon," Park said to Ho, "will you be my princess and come to prom with me?"

She was "kind of terrified at first," Ho said. A crowd of students cheered when she said "yes."

Larger-than-life prom proposals at the school started two years ago, students said, when a senior hung a large sign in the school asking his girlfriend to the dance, the Post reported.