Watercooler Stories

Mother's Day flowers for Florida inmates

MIAMI, May 10 (UPI) -- Female inmates at a Miami prison got flowers as a Mother's Day gift, courtesy of a local florist who says he was helping "where it's needed most."

Although the 63 prisoners would still be behind bars Sunday, on Friday they gathered in the chapel of Miami-Dade's Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center, clutching bouquets of flowers and fighting back tears, The Miami Herald reported.

Miami wholesale florist Bill Armellini arranged the pre-Mother's Day flower giveaway.

"I'm not a complicated guy,'' Armellini, a father of two, said."I just think help or charity should be given where it's needed most.''

Inmates spoke of being touched by the gesture.

"It a was tough reminder of being a mom,'' said inmate Herminia DeLarosa, 38, serving five years for helping fence stolen goods.

"I'm a mom in name," she said. "But I'm not living it, 'cause of what I did.''

Prison chaplain James Martin watched as the women received the flowers.

"Flowers aren't going to change anyone," he said. "But sometimes after years of stubbornness, all it takes is one simple kind gesture to push someone to change her life."

Birthday 'kidnapping' brings police

ORLANDO, Fla., May 10 (UPI) -- A birthday surprise went wrong as Florida police surrounded two teenagers after bystanders thought they were witnessing a kidnapping, authorities said.

Courtney Rogers was driving her friend Briana Vega to Vega's surprise party but was running late, so she pulled into a restaurant parking lot to put a blindfold on Vega, WOFL-TV, Orlando, Fla., reported Wednesday.

Diners in the restaurant, thinking there was a kidnapping in progress, called police, who arrived in minutes and surrounded Rogers and Vega.

"They were like 'have you ever had a gun pointed at your face?'" Vega said. "I was like 'no I haven't' and he was like 'well that could have happened today, we could have had you on the hot pavement down on the ground with guns to your heads.'"

"At that point I was freaked out," Vega said.

After being handcuffed for 20 minutes, Rogers and Vega were released but charged with disturbing the peace.

The girls and their parents have complained the actions of the police were "excessive," WOFL reported.

Hummus becomes Middle East battleground

BEIRUT, Lebanon, May 10 (UPI) -- War between Lebanon and Israel is being waged, not with guns or butter, but with tahini, as they vie to create the world's largest hummus dish, observers say.

Lebanon set the record Saturday for the creation of the largest plate of hummus. About 300 Lebanese chefs in a village about 5 miles east of Beirut came up with a dish weighing 11.5 tons. That's 23,042 pounds of a combination of chickpeas, tahini, lemon juice and olive oil, CNN reported.

On the surface the competition is good-natured, but as with everything in the region, there is an underlying seriousness, because food is culture and culture is existence, observers say.

Because the origin of hummus has been a topic of contentious debate between Lebanese and Israeli producers over who actually created the dish and who has rights to the name, Lebanon wants to settle the matter by having the European Union register hummus as its national dish, CNN said.

"What we have been trying to do is just what the Greeks have done with feta cheese," said Fadi Abboud, president of The Association of Lebanese Industrialists.

The Israelis have a different point of view.

"Trying to make a copyright claim over hummus is like claiming for the rights to bread or wine," said Shooky Galili, an Israeli whose blog, dedicated to all things hummus, bears the motto "give chickpeas a chance."

No quick fix for Gulf oil slick

SAN FRANCISCO, May 10 (UPI) -- It may be too late to use human hair stuffed inside pantyhose to soak up tens of thousands of barrels of oil fouling the Gulf of Mexico, officials say.

Shortly after the massive spill began with an oil rig blowout 18 days ago, Matter of Trust, a San Francisco group, began collecting tons of hair to stuff into nylon pouches -- or donated pantyhose -- for booms to collect and contain the spreading slick.

The hair and fur was to absorb grease and oil, and the non-profit has collected 450,000 pounds of hair and animal fur now stored in Gulf-region warehouses, The Washington Post reported Saturday. That's enough material to create nearly 68 miles of oil-catching booms.

One problem is the group is not authorized to place any booms in the water. Only government agencies and certified volunteers are allowed to do that.

"It's not clear how much of a dent in the problem the hair booms can make," said Matter of Trust co-founder Lisa Gautier.

BP, the owner of the offshore well that has been leaking since an April 20 explosion sank a drilling rig, said it appreciates the effort but has had no contact with the group.