Watercooler Stories

Zoo offers 'Love Gone Wild' event

DETROIT, Feb. 10 (UPI) -- Those looking to get in the mood on Valentine's Day in Detroit can head over to the zoo for its "Love Gone Wild" event, zoo officials say.

The Detroit Zoo's website says on Thursday people who pay $85 ($10 discount Detroit Zoological Society members) can spend 3 1/2 hours getting "a candid and entertaining look at how zoo animals do the 'wild thing.'"

Zoo officials promise "an intimate and revealing look into the 'dating' and mating escapades of the zoo's animals."

The event also will include champagne, a strolling dinner and desserts prepared by the zoo's culinary team from "Dining in the Wild," along with a commemorative gift.

Zoo officials note you must be 21 or older.

Detroit runners have 'brief' charity run

DETROIT, Feb. 10 (UPI) -- Runners in Detroit, wearing little more than underwear and shoes, braved the February cold to jog a mile to raise money for charity.

Cupid's Undie Run organizers said more than 550 people substituted boxers and bras for normal winter running gear to job about a mile around Ford Field Saturday, raising about $80,000 for the Children's Tumor Foundation, The Detroit News reported.

Detroit organizers set a $50,000 fundraising goal for the Motor City's first-ever event.

"We are the top fundraiser for all 14 new cities that were added to the event this year," race director John Marcicky said. "It's really showing how we put the hilarity in charity."

The event started in Washington D.C. in 2010.

Danielle Dettmer of Romeo and three friends raised $770 for the charity by running in the brisk 27 degrees F.

"It's definitely weird. And yeah, it's a little cold out," Dettmer told the News. "It's a cool atmosphere. Everybody's having a good time. It's cool that everyone could come out here together to do this."

Dettmer's friend, Gerber Moore, added, "And not get in trouble for indecent exposure."

Baby born at home in blizzard

WORCESTER, Mass., Feb. 10 (UPI) -- Rescuers said they delivered a baby in her parents' Massachusetts home as the National Guard cleared the family's home of snow so they could go to the hospital.

Ericka Bueno called 911 after her water broke in the middle of a blizzard that blanketed large swaths of the Northeast with heavy snow, The Boston Globe reported Saturday.

Rescuers in a military field ambulance -- the only emergency vehicle able to traverse the heavy snow -- arrived at Bueno and boyfriend Joel Gonell's Worcester home about 10 minutes later, the Massachusetts National Guard said in a statement.

"Upon arriving on scene, it was quickly determined that the woman would not reach the hospital before giving birth and must deliver at home," Sgt. Kenneth Hickey of the National Guard said in the statement.

The baby girl, Nohely, was born only 30 minutes after Bueno placed the 911 call.

As the baby was being delivered, National Guard soldiers shoveled the walkway to the family's home, clearing a path to board them on the ambulance and take them to the hospital, the Globe reported.

"It was definitely a blessing to have them there," Bueno said in a statement. "It's just good to know that we had so many people behind us, that it wasn't just the EMTs, that we had the National Guard there."

"I was just a regular person giving birth, and they went and they shoveled us out and they made sure that we made it to the hospital. When my daughter grows up, I'm going to let her know that we had a lot of very supportive, important people there to make sure that she got to the hospital safely," she added.

Couple addicted to coffee enemas

NEW YORK, Feb. 9 (UPI) -- A Florida couple who don't drink coffee acknowledge they have become addicted to coffee enemas.

Mike and Trina of St. Petersburg, who did not want their last name used, told ABC News the enemas take hours every day. Both work at home and they leave the house only for relatively short periods because they are unable to do without the daily ritual.

The couple will be featured on the first show of this season's "My Strange Addiction," which airs Feb. 13 on TLC.

Trina said she had been suffering from a variety of illnesses when she came across coffee enemas.

"I had a lot of stomach problems, digestive problems with my kidney and my liver," she said. "I started research and it led into coffee enemas and I really started to feel the benefit. I felt like I was living for the first time in years."

Dr. Roshini Rajapaksa, a gastroenterologist at NYU Medical Center, said coffee enemas have a "down side and really no upside." She said frequent enemas have no proven benefit but can cause irritation -- and there is always risk when a hose is inserted into the colon.