Watercooler Stories

18th-century wine sets record in France

PARIS, Feb. 6 (UPI) -- A 1774 vintage bottle of wine was sold Sunday for $77,270 in a record for eastern France's Jura region.

The vin jaune (yellow wine), was made by Anatoile Vercel (1725-1786) from savagnin grapes grown during the reign of Louis XV (1715-1774), Radio France Internationale reported.

The wine is aged for six years in oak casks, where it attains the ability to stay drinkable for centuries.

Connoisseurs who tasted another of Vercel's 1774 batch in 1994 declared it "excellent," praising its amber-gold color and notes of walnut, curry, cinnamon, vanilla and dried fruit.

The auction took place at the region's annual wine festival.

The winning bidder was the Swiss Pierre Chevrier, acting for a group of French, Swiss and Belgian wine fanciers.

"I really wanted to taste it," said runner-up Francois Audoze. "The oldest bottle I've ever drunk was 90 years younger."

Skunk gives couple wake-up call

PALM BAY, Fla., Feb. 6 (UPI) -- A Florida couple received an early wake-up call when they heard something moving around under their bed and discovered a skunk, officials said.

"I shined it under the bed and there was one of them catpoles," Odell Wadlington, of Palm Bay, said in a News 13, Orlando, report. "It was crazy."

"Polecat" is slang for skunk. Odell called James Dean, a local wildlife trapper, to remove the animal.

"Went inside, they had the bedroom door closed," Dean said. "They said the last place they saw it was under the bed."

Dean found the skunk behind some furniture and he was sprayed before he could put the squirrel-sized animal in a container.

Dean said small animals could get into a home through dryer vents.

"People are running their dryers," Dean said. "It's putting off heat, so skunks know to come there."

Wadlington went to work Thursday but was sent home.

"I had that brand on me," he said of the odor. "He (the boss) didn't want to deal with that."

Dean was sent home from his part-time job as well.

"He said 'Dude, can't have you here,'" Dean said.

False teeth come back to bite man

SACRAMENTO, Feb. 6 (UPI) -- California police say they nabbed a man who fled the scene of an accident because he left his false teeth in the stolen car he was driving.

The Sacramento Police Department arrested 53-year-old James Brown after he allegedly crashed the car into two other vehicles, a fence and landscaping Friday, Sacramento's KCRA-TV reported.

Police said the airbag dislodged the man's false teeth, which were found on the vehicle's floorboard.

Witnesses said Brown, who was injured in the accident, fled on foot. Police were able to identify him as the driver because they found his false teeth in the wrecked car, which was later found to be stolen.

Investigators also discovered that Brown, who at first identified himself as James Hackett, had an outstanding escape warrant in Washington, D.C.

Brown was charged with possession of a stolen car and hit-and-run.

911 call results in marijuana arrest

FARMINGTON, Conn., Feb. 6 (UPI) -- A Connecticut man who allegedly planned to grow marijuana was busted when he dialed 911 to find out how much trouble he could get in for doing so, police said.

Dispatchers traced the call to the Farmington home of Robert J. Michelson and charged him with possession of drug paraphernalia, illegal cultivation of a controlled substance and possession of drug paraphernalia in a drug factory, the Hartford Courant reported.

Michelson was arrested Thursday when officers went to his home after receiving the 911 call. He allegedly had one small plant and seeds and the equipment needed for growing.

Michelson allegedly told officers he spent a large sum of money purchasing growing supplies online.

He was taken to the Farmington Police Department and released on a $5,000 bond. Police said Michelson was cooperative with officers but allegedly made an obscene gesture to dispatchers.