Watercooler Stories

Old cannonball sparks bomb squad visit

ALBUQUERQUE, May 25 (UPI) -- An Albuquerque man said police sent a bomb squad to his house after he discovered an item given to him by a friend years ago was likely an 1800s cannonball.

Kenny Honeycutt said he was describing the object to a friend Friday and was told it sounded like a cannonball from the Civil War era, leading him to call police to ask whether it might be dangerous, KOAT-TV, Albuquerque, reported.

"My grandkids come over here and play all the time. I thought, if this thing is dangerous I want to get it out of there," Honeycutt said. "I had used it for a doorstop for a while. I thought I would set it up on the entertainment center."

Police said the item was determined to be an explosive device from the 1800s, but there was no gunpowder inside the object so it was not considered dangerous.

Honeycutt said he does not know what he will do with the cannonball.

"It might be valuable to somebody. Maybe I should put it on the Internet," said Honeycutt.

Teen fights to graduate in kilt

LETHBRIDGE, Alberta, May 25 (UPI) -- A Canadian teenager with Scottish roots said he is fighting school officials for the right to wear a kilt while walking in his late June graduation.

Hamish Jacobs, 19, of Lethbridge, Alberta, whose family moved to Canada from Scotland in 1965, said he found his uncle's blue-and-green tartan kilt, representing the Forbes clan, fits him perfectly and decided to wear the item as a tribute to his family history during his graduation from Raymond High School, the Globe and Mail reported.

"I want to wear it out of respect for my ancestors, and because it's just what Scottish people wear to formal things," Jacobs said.

However, he said principal Mark Beazer denied his request to wear the kilt during the ceremony.

"I find it funny. The school teaches you to respect your heritage, be different, be yourself. And so I am going to be different, being myself. And they don't like that," he said.

Jacobs said Westwind School Division superintendent Doug Bennett sided with the principal and he is considering appealing to the school board in early June.

The Globe and Mail said school officials could not be reached for comment Sunday.

Teacher in 'pregnant' yearbook row fired

KNIGHTSTOWN, Ind., May 25 (UPI) -- An Indiana high school said a teacher will not be invited back next year after he tried to insert a "pregnant girls" section into the yearbook.

Knightstown High School Principal Scott Ritchie said English teacher K.C. Salter, who attempted to put a section in the yearbook showcasing the pregnant students at the school, will be allowed to finish the school year and will still help with the yearbook, but under close supervision, WISH-TV, Indianapolis, reported.

"There had been a student who had taken offense to being approached by another student wanting to take a picture. That student got upset and we responded firmly and seized the operation that was going on and performed and investigation from that point," Ritchie said.

The school district said Salter will not be returning next year due to "poor performance."

Baby born while mom drives to hospital

BEMIDJI, Minn., May 25 (UPI) -- A Minnesota couple said their son was born while his mother was behind the wheel of her car en route to the hospital.

Amanda McBride, 29, said she left work at about 11:30 p.m. May 18 when she began feeling labor pains and picked up the child's father, Joseph Phillips, 33, on her way to North Country Regional Hospital in Bemidji, the Bemidji Pioneer reported.

McBride said she had to drive the car because Phillips suffers seizures, but the couple said Phillips had to grab the wheel when McBride's water broke mid-drive.

"She yelled at me to grab the wheel," Phillips said. "And then, all of a sudden, I heard this little waaa (cry)."

The mother, who has two older sons, said the birth was quick.

"The baby just came right out," she said. "I was just sitting on the seat and he just slid out. It really wasn't bad at all."

The family made it to the hospital with McBride and baby still in the driver's seat and Phillips steering from the passenger side. The baby, Joseph Dominick Phillips, was found to be healthy and weighed 8 pounds, doctors said.