Watercooler Stories

Bear family consumes 100 cans of beer

JARFJORD, Norway, Aug. 9 (UPI) -- A mama bear and her three cubs are suspected of breaking into a cabin in northern Norway and knocking back more than 100 cans of beer, officials said.

"They had a hell of a party in there," cabin owner Even Borthen Nilsen told NRK. "The cabin has the stench of a right old piss up, trash and bears."

The bear family is believed to have ripped a wall off of the cabin to gain entry, The Local.no reported.

"The entire cabin was destroyed," Nilsen told the local Finnmarken.no daily.

"The beds and all kitchen appliances, stove, oven and cupboards and shelves were all smashed to pieces," Nilsen said, adding his mother and grandmother made the discovery when the arrived at the cabin in Jarfjord.

The bears also consumed every morsel in the cabin to include marshmallows, honey and chocolate spread.

Nilsen fears the bears' pay dirt could lead them to return to the area.

"The mother has taken her young there, thus there is no guarantee that it won't happen to other cabins or to our hut again," he said.

Russian court rejects man's Vatican claim

MOSCOW, Aug. 9 (UPI) -- The Russian Supreme Court rejected an appeal from a citizen who sought to have his ownership of the Vatican officially recognized.

A spokeswoman for the court said the Supreme Court reviewed the appeal from Roman Lugovoi and sided with a lower court's earlier ruling against his claim of Vatican inheritance and property rights, RIA Novosti reported Thursday.

The spokesman did not explain why Lugovoi, who named the pope as the defendant in his case, believed himself to own the Vatican.

Job center runs steamy sauna ad

EVREUX, France, Aug. 9 (UPI) -- A French job center has agreed to carry an ad for a sauna position after rejecting it due to the description asking for "discreet and open-minded" applicants.

The Evreux job center originally refused to carry an ad for a position at the sauna, one of several owned by Guillaime de Thomas, because the ad said applicants must be "discreet and open-minded," Radio France Internationale reported Thursday.

Thierry Lemerle, the head of the regional employment service, said the language in the job description "implied that the employee should not be shocked by libertine activities."

However, the center has now agreed to run the ad after de Thomas accused it of discrimination.

Lemerle and other officials had raised concerns that job seekers uncomfortable with the job requirements could lose their benefits. The rules governing unemployment benefits state job seekers can lose their benefits if they turn down two "reasonable" offers.

Boy had toy part stuck in nose for three years

SALT LAKE CITY, Aug. 9 (UPI) -- A Utah boy can breathe better and smell aromas, his father says, now that a rubber wheel from a toy, lodged in his nose for three years, has been removed.

The constant congestion and snoring of Isaak Lasson, 6, baffled his parents and doctors, until an ear, nose and throat specialist snaked a camera up the Salt Lake City boy's nose.

"There it was, a ball of fungus," said Isaak's dad, Craig Lasson.

Inside the ball was a dime-sized wheel of soft rubber, a piece of a toy.

Isaak admitted putting "some spaghetti in there that hadn't come out," his father told ABC News, but "We have no idea what it is or where it came from."

The wheel is now treated like a trophy, sitting in a container atop the family refrigerator, and "Isaak thinks it's great. He wants to show it to all his friends," his father said, noting his son has more energy and a better appetite, since he can now smell his mother's cooking.