Watercooler Stories

Bear released with 'heck of a hangover'

GLENDALE, Calif., April 11 (UPI) -- California wildlife officials said a black bear tranquilized while searching for food in a city has been released in the woods with "a heck of a hangover."

California Department of Fish and Game spokesman Andrew Hughan said the bear, which was nicknamed "Glen Bearian" by officers and given a Twitter account by the department after it was tranquilized Tuesday in Glendale, was released in the Angeles National Forest, the Los Angeles Times reported Wednesday.

"He just wandered out, looked around, and took stock of his surroundings," Hughan said. "He's got a heck of a hangover, mostly. The game warden said he's unhappy. We don't know what kind of headache he's got."

Lt. Martin Wall of California Fish and Game said the bear's hangover likely came from the four tranquilizer darts it took to put him to sleep after he spent about a month wandering the Glendale area in search of nourishment.

"We hope he's far enough way that he looks himself in the mirror and says, 'You know what, I don't think people-food is for me,'" Hughan said.

There were two final posts made to the @GlenBearian Twitter account during the bear's transportation, one reading, "#roadtrip," and the other reading, "We got to stop at In-N-Out on the way to the woods!"

Student: $180 textbook filled with errors

TAMPA, Fla., April 11 (UPI) -- A University of Southern Florida student who paid about $180 for a statistics textbook said he was dismayed to find the tome is riddled with errors.

Jason Richardson, a junior at the Tampa school, said he discovered "The Joy of Statistics" is filled with errors concerning both the content of the math and the English used to explain it, WFTS-TV, Tampa, reported Wednesday.

Richardson said he "noticed a lot of things that didn't make a lot of sense" shortly after purchasing the textbook.

"The sentence reads 'A random sample of 50 pieces of plastic are being used 6mm these pieces of nylon rope are taken and the breaking strength (KN) is measured," Richardson said.

He said he discovered numerous other language problems in the book, as well as many errors in the math it purports to teach. He said his teacher, one of the authors of the book, blamed the errors on the publisher.

Chad Chandlee, the president of publisher Kendall Hunt, acknowledged the book has several errors.

"It's human error. It's an unfortunate part of publishing, and it sounds like in this case from what I'm being told there were a significant amount of errors," he said.

However, he defended the book as still being a useful resource for learning.

"My question would be, did the book advance their ability to learn the subject matter? I think our answer to it is it did," Chandlee said.

Abandoned puppies had contact info on bag

TOLEDO, Ohio, April 11 (UPI) -- Authorities in Ohio said a man accused of abandoning a litter of puppies in a suitcase is facing charges after leaving his luggage tag on the bag.

Gene Boros, a Toledo Area Humane Society cruelty officer, said the suitcase containing six English bulldog puppies was found with the mother dog standing next to it near a trash bin behind a business on Stickney Avenue April 4, the Toledo Blade reported Wednesday.

The puppies were taken to the Humane Society and Howard Davis, whose name and contact information were on the suitcase's luggage tags, is now facing two misdemeanor counts of abandonment.

Boros said witnesses identified the mother dog as belonging to Davis and said he had been trying to sell the puppies. Davis denied abandoning the canines and told authorities he had given the dogs to someone in Michigan.

John Dinon, executive director of the Toledo Area Humane Society, said Davis will be served with a citation and given a court date to face the charges.

Glitch leads to $1 gallons of gas

PASADENA, Texas, April 11 (UPI) -- Motorists in Texas said a problem with the pumps at a gas station caused fuel to be sold for $1 per gallon for several hours.

The motorists, some of whom said they heard about the cheap gas from Facebook, said they were able to fill up their tanks at a rate sharply discounted from the national average of $3.92 per gallon Tuesday due to a glitch in the pumps at the Conoco station in Pasadena, KTRK-TV, Houston, reported Wednesday.

The $1 gas lasted until about 1:30 a.m., when one motorist said the station ran out of fuel.