Watercooler Stories

Cabbage Patch-like hysteria over new doll

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y., Nov. 21 (UPI) -- A California-based company has a new blue-haired doll that is creating Cabbage Patch-like hysteria reminiscent of the 1980s, shoppers said.

"Adorable Mittens Fluff 'N' Stuff" is one of eight dolls in the "Sew magical -- Sew cute" Lalaloopsy line, and sells for about $25, if you can find one, the New York Post reported.

The doll was already sold out at many toy stores, and entrepreneurs were selling them on the Internet for as much as $89. It is being sold by MGA Entertainment, a $2 billion a year toy manufacturer best known for its 'Bratz' dolls.

One million of the dolls were produced, but finding one is a challenge, shoppers said.

"A lady snatched it before I could get it," said New Yorker Jessica Marrero, 25, who tried to buy one at her workplace, a Staten Island Toys 'R' Us.

The rosy-cheeked doll has a resemblance to Raggedy Ann. Its medium-tone skin, Marrero said, likely appeals to a larger, more diverse audience of girls.

The high, black-market prices are upsetting to MGA Entertainment Chief Executive Officer Isaac Larian. He said the prices "really kind of bother me."

"We want every girl to have one of these affordable dolls, especially in these economic times for Christmas," Larian said.

The dolls are reportedly made from Eskimo scarves, although Larian did not confirm the connection. He attributed the doll's popularity to its skin color.

But Larian said Mittens is popular because she has a broader appeal.

"It's not yet another blond doll with a white face," he said.

Woman says she shot cat after attack

LAKELAND, Fla., Nov. 20 (UPI) -- A Florida woman who killed her neighbor's cat says she opened fire to protect her pit bull, her sister and herself.

Polly Boykin of Lakeland faces charges of animal cruelty and firing a gun in public, The Lakeland Ledger reports. Judy Steele was ticketed for not having proof her cat had been vaccinated and allowing the animal to roam loose.

Police said Skeeter, Steele's cat, strayed into Boykin's yard Tuesday morning. The pit bull, named Zeva, went after the cat and the two animals ended up in another yard under a house trailer.

When Brenda Barley, Boykin's sister, tried to get the cat out, the animal went after both of them. Boykin, who now has an infected hand, said she decided to get her .32-caliber handgun because she wanted to protect others.

"I was worried about the cat coming out and hurting someone else," she said.

Steele blames Boykin.

"What happened with that lady was uncalled for," she said. "She wasn't even in her yard when she shot the cat. That cat was just trying to get away from the dog."

Casino finds one-armed bandits profitable

LAS VEGAS, Nov. 20 (UPI) -- A Las Vegas casino says keeping a few older slot machines, the one-armed bandits that take coins and make noise, has been profitable.

The Eastside Cannery replaced the Nevada Palace, the Los Angeles Times reported. The Palace, sited in an area that had become a strip of trailer parks, motels and pawnbrokers, was one of the last holdouts using older machines until it was torn down in 2008.

Jeannette White, 73, a Palace devotee, said she and her husband urged the Cannery to keep some of the old machines. The hotel did, and Marty Gross said when he became general manager last year he noticed a lot of people seemed to like the noise and excitement and not to mind getting their fingers blackened by handling grubby quarters.

"There's a small group -- bigger than we thought -- still playing these games," Gross said.

Gross converted one room to the old-style slots. He said it averages at least 70 percent full with people waiting for open machines on Friday nights.

Relative blocks woman's cremation

NEW YORK, Nov. 20 (UPI) -- The body of a 105-year-old woman has been kept in cold storage at a funeral home in New York because a relative refuses to let her be cremated, officials said.

Ethel Baar died in September and in her 1999 will said she wished to be cremated, but a grandnephew has blocked the procedure, saying the Jewish religion prohibits cremation, the New York Daily News reported.

"He objected based on religious grounds to the proposed cremation, arguing that the Jewish religion forbids cremation," funeral home lawyer Peter Shapiro said in court documents.

The grandnephew, James Pollock, lives in Israel and was the only relative to object to Baar's cremation; his actions have angered other family members.

"I know from all my conversations with her that she had no feelings for orthodoxy," her cousin William Wolf told the Daily News. "She was not a religious person at all and her desire was just that she be cremated."

The childless widow's body is showing signs of decomposition, the newspaper said.

"Ms. Baar's remains are not embalmed, and have been maintained in a refrigeration unit for a prolonged time period," Shapiro wrote in court papers. "The passage of time has an inevitable impact on the remains."

The Gramercy Park Memorial Chapel has asked a judge to intervene in the incident.