Subscribe | UPI Odd Newsletter Subscribe RUSSIANS THINK LEAP YEAR IS UNLUCKY Moscow has been unfortunate lately -- a parking garage roof of a department store collapsed as did the roof of a water park. Advertisement A geyser of dirty cold water spurt out from under the ground near Danilovskaya Square that soon turned the square into a lake. With fears of more construction problems ahead, a rumor is circulating throughout the Russian city that its misfortune is because 2004 is a leap-year, Pravda reports. PTA PRESIDENT ACCUSED OF STEALING FOR TANS A former New York City PTA president has been arrested for stealing almost $6,000 to pay for tanning sessions, hairdos and manicures. Brenda Battaglia, who headed the PTA in a Queens public school, has been charged with grand larceny and faces up to seven years in prison if convicted, the New York Daily News reports. "The defendant used a PTA debit card as a ticket to the good life," District Attorney Richard Brown says. "Her conduct was a betrayal of trust of the parents who elected her to serve as their leader." Battaglia has denied the allegations to neighbors but prosecutors say she charged a long list of beauty treatments to the PTA account. Advertisement NURSERY RHYMES BASED ON SEX, POLITICS Nursery rhymes actually are based on sexual, religious and political innuendo, according to a British amateur historian. Chris Roberts, a 37-year-old librarian, says he was researching material for a walking tour of London when he stumbled across the story behind a nursery rhyme and then started researching the meaning of poems read to children, Sky News reports. Roberts says the original version of "Rub-a-Dub-Dub, Three Men In A Tub" actually was three maids in a tub. It was about a medieval peep show and people going to the fair to ogle women. "Jack and Jill" were indulging in premarital sex when they went up the hill rather than fetching a pail of water, according to Roberts POLICE VISITING RELATIVES BEHIND BARS An investigation finds some police officers in New York City had been making regular visits to inmates -- their relatives behind bars. New York City Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly sent a memo on Feb. 4 that requires police officers to ask superiors for permission before visiting family members in jail or prison. "Cops aren't supposed to be hanging out with criminals and there are a lot who are and we want to know about it," an Internal Affairs Bureau source tells the New York Post. Advertisement However, critics say the policy intrudes on an officer's off-duty activities and likely is unconstitutional, the Post says.
