Operatic proposal gets ovation
NEW YORK, April 24 (UPI) -- A man popped the question onstage at New York's Metropolitan Opera while he and his fiance were taking a tour an hour before the matinee performance.
Josh Reitzas, 31, dropped to one knee to surprise Megan Savage on the set of the famous opera love story, "Marriage of Figaro," the New York Daily News reported.
"I'm speechless," said Savage, 27, through tears -- before managing to utter the answer her beau had been hoping for. "I couldn't have asked for anything more. I love opera. This is one of my favorite spots in New York."
Reitzas, a lawyer, slipped a huge cushion-cut diamond -- the size of which he wanted to keep secret -- onto his fiancee's finger.
"I've been thinking of how I was going to do this for a long time, and then it came to me," he said. "We were sitting watching 'Mazeppa' two months ago, and I realized (that) to propose on the stage here would be fantastic."
Freed cat runs up expensive tab
NEW YORK, April 24 (UPI) -- Molly, famous for being trapped inside the walls of a New York Deli for 14 days before she was finally freed, may be the most world's most expensive cat.
After Molly disappeared March 31, her predicament drew international attention to Peter Myers' deli. Animal Care & Control of New York City drilled dozens of holes in the 157-year-old building before rescuing Molly.
The agency raised $1,000 to help cover repairs but Myers told the New York Daily News that would cover "merely a fraction" of the cost of putting the building right.
"Molly's turning out to be the most expensive cat in the world," Myers told the newspaper.
Mike Pastore, Animal Care & Control's director of field operations, told the News the agency wanted to help -- not pay the entire cost.
"We were there to save the cat, not restore the building," he said.
Myers said he had been told by rescuers that a woman from California volunteered to foot the bill for excavating to rescue the 11-month-old kitten -- but there was a string attached.
"That was providing that she could adopt the cat. I never knew that," Myers said.
Strap-on 'six-pack' abs arrive
NEW YORK, April 24 (UPI) -- For $34.95, American males can literally strap on a beer belly and head out to the ballpark, or anywhere else for that matter.
The strap-on contraption, available online at thebeerbelly.com, sports an 80-ounce plastic bladder that you can fill with the beverage of your choice -- and add an ice pack to keep it cold -- the New York Post reported.
On a test run in midtown Manhattan last week, only three or four people did a double-take when a reporter sporting the device went by.
"How about a drink?" the reporter asked an actress from Los Angeles.
"Um, I don't know," she answered.
"Hey, it's on me," he said.
And it was. Literally.
'Boring' prime minister refuses to disco
THE HAGUE, Netherlands, April 24 (UPI) -- Netherlands Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende has been accused of lacking charisma, the BBC reported, but he insists that may not be a bad thing.
Balkenende, who has been Dutch prime minister since 2002, holds a degree in economics and law, and is a devout Calvinist.
Last year, Karel De Gucht, Belgium's foreign minister, described Balkenende as a mix between Harry Potter and a "brave righteous bourgeois" without charisma.
Balkenende has admitted he may be "a bit boring" and, speaking at a meeting of his Christian Democrat party in the town of Horn, he conceded that "a bit of cheerfulness surely wouldn't hurt."
But he turned down a suggestion to go campaigning in discos and nightclubs ahead of next year's general election. He agreed it's a good idea to campaign at night spots, but said he is the wrong man for that job.
