Subscribe | UPI Odd Newsletter Subscribe Plaques thank donor for library urinals PHILADELPHIA, Feb. 1 (UPI) -- Men using urinals at a University of Pennsylvania library are startled to see silver plaques above each unit, thanking a donor for funding the urinals. Advertisement "The relief you are now experiencing is made possible by a gift from Michael Zinman," reads the circular silver plaques in the men's restroom of the university's Van Pelt Library in Philadelphia. "I have a warped sense of what the world is like, and I am poking barbed, gentle fun at society," said Zinman, a businessman and book collector. Zinman also sent a letter to poet laureates in every state with $100 and a request to submit a poem in honor of urinals -- 19 did and the poems from silly rhymes to more serious poetry were compiled in a 24-page booklet, reported the The Daily Pennsylvanian. The urinal plaques are not the only humorous dedications in the Van Pelt library. Another plaque is posted at the spot where former President Gerald Ford became stuck in an elevator. Cops too busy at crashes to enforce law SACRAMENTO, Feb. 1 (UPI) -- California Highway Patrol officers are too busy attending car crashes to enforce the law issuing tickets, the San Jose Mercury News said Tuesday. Advertisement A state legislative report found the equivalent of nearly 500 uniformed officers are taken away from patrols each year to handle fender-benders and file time-consuming reports. And while the number of licensed drivers in California nearly doubled between 1970 and 2003 from 11.6 million to 22.7 million, the patrol issued just 7 percent more citations, from around 2.27 million 30 years ago to 2.44 million in 2003. Since 1993, the number of collisions has increased by almost 30 percent, or 52,000 -- and has risen each of the last four years, surpassing 227,000. Apart from the loss of enforcement, there's a morale factor for the force. "Any officer will tell you they don't like the paperwork," said CHP officer Michael Wright. "We'd rather be out there making things safe, and not sitting at a keyboard." Woman saves 1,430 charity solicitations MINNESPOLIS, Minn., Feb. 1 (UPI) -- While many people throw charity solicitations away as soon as they come in the mail, Mary Stelmaszewski saved them and ended the year with 1,430 letters. She told the Minneapolis Star Tribune she received an average 27 charity appeals each week, many from groups she had never heard of. Non-profits sent out between 14 billion and 15 billion pieces of mail in 2004. Advertisement Stelmaszwski said she got enough letters, cards, calendars, gimmick cashable checks and religious medals to paper her home. She gives to about 20 charities each year like the Salvation Army, American Lung Association and Catholic Charities and gave to help victims of the Asian tsunami. Charities buy, sell and share mailing lists and Stelmanszewski says once you are on a list you never get off. The 800,000 charities registered as non-profits with the Internal Revenue Service raise an estimated $240 billion a year.
