UPI NewsTrack Quirks in the News

Dolphin leaps onto boat

MARCO ISLAND, Fla., March 14 (UPI) -- Florida fire officials said a dolphin weighing 600 to 700 pounds jumped onto the deck of a boat traveling on the Marco River and landed on a woman.

Isles of Capri Fire officials said a charter boat captain called about 2:44 p.m. Sunday and reported the dolphin had jumped out of the water and landed on a woman on the deck of the vessel, the Naples Daily News reported Monday.

Fire Lt. Keith Perry said rescuers determined the woman, who was not named, suffered a sprained ankle. He said firefighters, assisted by rescuers from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and the Collier County Sheriff's Office, slid an immobilizing board under the dolphin and tied a rope around its tail to slide it back into the water.

"It seemed to know that we were trying to help," Perry said.

Boston inherits Italian estate -- and pets

BOSTON, March 14 (UPI) -- Boston officials said the city inherited a $700,000 estate in Italy with a condition that officials see to the care and feeding of the resident cats and dogs.

The officials said Luciano Visocchi, who died at the age of 62 during the summer, left his estate, which includes a house and other property, to the city where his mother and aunt lived for several years prior to his birth, The Boston Globe reported Monday.

Visocchi put one important condition in his will.

"The city of Boston ... is obliged to look after the old dogs Argus and Jak," the will reads. "To feed the cat Rossina, easily recognizable from her great size, as well as the cats Giacchino, Rossino, Pasquale, Francesco and others as well."

Mayor Thomas Menino said officials were taken aback by news of the inheritance.

"It's unbelievable. I want to know who is going to feed the cats and dogs," Menino said. "They're over in Italy. What do you want me to do?"

The mayor joked he may send "some departments out there that get on my bad side."

The Italian newspaper Il Tempo said officials in Visocchi's hometown, Atina, may try to contest the will. The newspaper said an earlier draft of Visocchi's will bequeathed the estate to 18 local politicians and the officials are preparing for a "war of documents" to challenge Boston's claim to the property.

Clowns gather for New York convention

NEW YORK, March 14 (UPI) -- More than 200 clowns from around the world are gathering in New York for the World Clown Association's five-day convention, organizers said.

The convention, starting Monday at the LaGuardia Plaza Hotel, features face-painting competition and lessons on balloon sculpture-making and honker-creation, the New York Daily News reported.

Organizers said about 30 clowns are slated to visit young and elderly patients at three city hospitals Wednesday.

Dennis DiMartino, 52, who performs under the name "Cappy Da Clown" at Brooklyn Cyclones baseball games, said he is organizing city tours in school buses for visiting clowns.

"I'm trying to put a red nose on the front of the bus," he said. "But I haven't figured out how yet."

Library digitizing more than 40,000 old menus

NEW YORK, March 14 (UPI) -- Librarians at the New York Public Library said they are digitizing their collection of more than 40,000 menus from city restaurants dating back to 1843.

Rebecca Federman, librarian for the library's culinary collection, said the menus range from an 1843 list of foods served by the Astor House to a 2010 menu from a local Chipotle, the New York Post reported Monday.

"It's a record of what people actually ate," Federman said. "It began in 1900 and is now part of our rare-books division because it is such a unique, ephemeral collection."

The library said officials are preparing to digitize the collection with help from volunteers recruited to transcribe the dishes into an indexed database.

"With the public's help, we'll be able to generate an amazing, searchable database, where you can visualize neighborhood restaurants and prices of dishes over time," said Ben Vershbow, the project's digital producer.