Jockstrip: The world as we know it.

Knitters to cover airplane weather vane

WHITEHORSE, Yukon, July 24 (UPI) -- Knitters in Canada say they are banding together to cover a DC-3 aircraft converted to use as a weather vane with knitted yarn next month.

Jessica Vellenga, one of the organizers of the "yarn-bombing" project in Whitehorse, Yukon, said knitters across North America have made donations toward the cause of covering the Erik Nielsen Whitehorse International Airport weather vane, the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. reported Monday.

"A lot of local knitters have participated," she said. "We've had donations from Ottawa, Toronto, Huntsville, Texas, Ohio, lots of different places.

"We had a great donation from a young lady who's 11 years old and she wanted to donate a little bit to the yarn bomb. She decided to help us meet our world record and we also had a lovely box of goods come from the National Arts Center," Vellenga said.

She said the attempt to create the world's largest airplane cozy is scheduled for Aug. 11.

City drops dance marathon ban

OAKLAND, Calif., July 24 (UPI) -- A California city council has done away with an 82-year-old ban on dance marathons that carried a six month jail sentence for violations.

The Oakland City Council voted July 17 to do away with the ban, which was passed in 1930 by then-Mayor John Davie and his colleagues, the San Francisco Chronicle reported Monday.

The effort to do away with the ban was led by Councilwoman Rebecca Kaplan and was supported by city attorneys.

"We do not need to keep so-called morality laws from several generations ago on the books," City Attorney Barbara Parker said.

Car plunges into river after wash

TEANECK, N.J., July 24 (UPI) -- Workers at a New Jersey car wash said a woman hit the wrong pedal while exiting the business and plunged into a river.

John Goez, 40, of Teaneck, an employee at the Spotless Auto Laundry in Hackensack, said the elderly woman apparently hit the accelerator pedal when her wash was completed Sunday and her car drove into the Hackensack River, The Record, Hackensack, reported Monday.

Goez and a customer, Jay Orsino of River Edge, jumped into the water and rescued the woman from her car.

"I kept telling her, 'Don't worry, we're going to get you out of here,'" Goez said. "We couldn't open the door because of the water pressure," Goez said. "Thank God, the window was half open. We got her through the window."

The woman was taken to Hackensack University Medical Center.

Firefighters said they tethered the car to the shore and helped a tow truck pull it from the water.

Missing ring found at beach

MARGATE, N.J., July 24 (UPI) -- A New Jersey lifeguard said the engagement ring his wife lost on the beach was brought to him while he was on duty about two weeks later.

Mike Booth, a lifeguard at a beach in Margate, said his wife lost her wedding and engagement rings at the beach July 6 and was unable to find them despite a volunteer search party, the Press of Atlantic City, N.J., reported Monday.

However, Don Spivack, 74, said he was at the beach Sunday when he saw the engagement ring glistening in the sand. He remembered his wife and two daughters told him about how they helped search for the missing rings so he brought the item to the lifeguard post, where Booth was on duty.

"I couldn't believe it," Booth said. "The wedding band is still missing but certainly if I had to find one, I'm glad we found the engagement ring."

He said the ring cost him the equivalent of several paychecks. He said he used his phone to send a picture of the found ring to his wife.

"She's going to wake up to a happy picture," he said. "I thought it was gone for good and I'm just happy and thankful that someone's honest with that."