Watercooler Stories

Woman says 'yes' in alien proposal

ROSWELL, N.M., July 18 (UPI) -- A Roswell, N.M., man got an affirmative answer when he nervously proposed to his girlfriend in the city's UFO Museum after a staged battle with aliens.

Ross Savedra, 32, staged an elaborate proposal with family and friends at the museum's autopsy exhibit in which his brother-in-law and stepfather, costumed as aliens, "abducted" his 23-year-old girlfriend of three years, Ariane Ash, the Roswell Record reported.

Visitors had been tipped off about his plan, so no one was alarmed when Savedra bounded through the crowd and wrestled Ash away from the aliens, the newspaper said.

He then dropped to his knees and stammered out his proposal while offering her an engagement ring.

Museum Director Julie Shuster called the verdict over the museum's sound system.

"By the way, everyone, she said yes," Shuster announced.

The couple was then showered with shiny, colored confetti as the crowd applauded, the report said.

While the museum hosted a wedding three years ago, Savedra was the first to pop the big question at the facility, Shuster said.

'Series of tubes' mocks Stevens

WASHINGTON, July 18 (UPI) -- Comments made by U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, describing the Internet as "not a truck" have spawned parodies across the "series of tubes."

The comments, an explanation of why he voted against the net neutrality amendment, have been mocked on blogs, ridiculed on Comedy Central's "The Daily Show," put to song, including a melody that was temporarily deleted from MySpace.com, and become the subject of satirical videos on YouTube.com, The New York Times reported Monday.

Stevens, in voicing opposition to the amendment, which aims to keep all Internet traffic speeds equal, said: "The Internet is not something you just dump something on. It's not a truck. It's a series of tubes."

"An Internet was sent by my staff at 10 o'clock in the morning on Friday; I just got it yesterday."

Andrew Raff, founder of the Ted Stevens Internet Fan Club on MySpace.com, said on iptablog.org that a "marginally funny" song he wrote had been removed from MySpace. A spokesman for MySpace parent Fox Interactive Media said the song had been returned to the site once it was established that it did not violate any copyrights.

NYPD tests vests for plainclothes

NEW YORK, July 18 (UPI) -- The New York Police Department has begun field trials on bulletproof vests designed specifically for detectives wearing suits.

The cloth-covered vests, manufactured by Second Chance Armor, are made of the same material as their bulkier blue counterparts, but are designed to blend in with their clothing so as not to compromise the detectives' identities, the New York Post reported Monday.

The move was prompted by the shooting deaths of four NYPD investigators, the Post said.

"We want to make sure our detectives, like uniformed officers, have the best lifesaving equipment at hand, because we know from experience that events can turn deadly in the blink of an eye," Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said.

Officers wearing the vests report weekly on the vests' comfort, flexibility, breathing restriction and other issues. So far, 80 percent of officers have said the vests are comfortable, 65 percent have said the vests "bend and are flexible," and 75 percent said they have no trouble breathing with the vests on, the Post said.

The trials end Aug. 8.

Two Chicagoans complain about church bells

CHICAGO, July 18 (UPI) -- An old Chicago church has agreed not to ring its bells after 9 p.m. after complaints from new residents of the area.

For more than 100 years, the bells of St. John Cantius Church on the city's Near West Side have peeled every quarter-hour until 11 p.m., the Chicago Sun-Times reports.

People in the community woke up to the bells and went to sleep by the bells.

No one ever complained until a year ago when some new town houses were built right across the street from the church.

Two town home residents filed a loud noise complaint with the state environmental protection agency.

As a result of the complaint, the church agreed to stop ringing the bells late at night.

"It's the first time in the history of the church this has ever happened," the Rev. Al Temari said. "No one's ever complained before."