Jockstrip: The world as we know it.

NYC lawmaker want subway eating ban

NEW YORK, Jan. 29 (UPI) -- A state lawmaker from New York City is pushing legislation to ban eating in the subways in an effort to help cut down on the city's rat problem.

The bill, proposed by state Sen. Bill Perkins, D-Manhattan, stipulates that anyone caught eating in the subway gets a $250 fine, the New York Post reported Sunday.

"I've seen people open up plates of french fries and chicken, and have a grand old meal -- and then discard their stuff on the track," Perkins said. "The question becomes, 'How can we minimize the feasts that rats are experiencing?' By trying to control human behaviors."

However, many transit-users disagree with the legislation.

"It would kind of suck," said Meredith Naughton, 22. "New Yorkers are always trying to make the most of their time and it kind of helps to eat on the go."

Elderly couple have oldest toaster in U.K.

LONDON, Jan. 29 (UPI) -- An elderly couple say their 58-year-old toaster, which they still use, is the oldest in Britain.

Joan and Fred Horley got their chrome-plated Morphy Richards toaster as a wedding gift in 1953, the Mirror reported.

The toaster, which cost $31 then, is believed to be the oldest working model in Britain.

"It's still as good as new," Fred Horley, 80, told the Mirror.

California trying to give away a highway

LOS ANGELES, Jan. 29 (UPI) -- California's transit agency is trying to give away a highway that dead ends in the San Gabriel mountains over Los Angeles, but no one wants it.

The U.S. Forest Service and Los Angeles County both want Highway 39 to remain open, the Los Angeles Times reports. The highway provides access to Angeles National Forest for the public and firefighters and to three county dams.

Neither, on the other hand, wants to assume the cost of maintaining a road subject to damage from forest fires, landslides, falling rocks and floods. Caltrans puts the annual upkeep at $1.5 million a year.

Highway 39 runs from the city of Azusa to Crystal Lake, where the Forest Service recently spent $6 million upgrading a campground. When it was built in the 1920s, it connected with the Angeles Crest Highway, but a 1978 landslide blocked the last 4.4 miles, creating what Caltrans spokesman Patrick Chandler called "essentially a 27-mile cul-de-sac."

The highway provides access to about 500 homes and is vital for some business owners.

Adam Samrah, a Turkish immigrant, bought the Crystal Lake Snack Bar Trading Post in 2002, only to see the area closed by a forest fire. He finally opened in March and says closing Highway 39 "would destroy me."

Woman: Rules left her stuck in elevator

WEYMOUTH, England, Jan. 29 (UPI) -- Company officials disputed a woman's claim she was stuck in a British supermarket elevator while waiting for a trained technician to arrive and press a button.

Janice Woodward, 55, of Dorset says she and her 2-year-old granddaughter were trapped in the elevator for well over an hour because store employees said they weren't authorized to push the button that would have freed them.

"I was in there for an hour and 15 minutes and I had visions of being in there forever," Woodward told The Sunday Star. "When the technician got there he just touched the control button and the lift moved."

Woodward said she rang for help but the workers at the Asda store in Weymouth said they were prohibited by safety regulations from pushing the button that would have released the stalled elevator car.

An Asda spokeswoman said the technician actually arrived within 20 minutes and needed another 30 minutes to work on the machinery before the button could be pushed.