Watercooler Stories

Fat Tuesday treats pack high fat

HAMTRAMCK, Mich., Feb. 12 (UPI) -- Michiganders indulging in the Fat Tuesday tradition of eating paczki would require a 4-mile walk to burn off the calories, experts said.

Paczki are deep-friend circular pastries with a sweet filling.

Paczki-selling businesses in the heavily-Polish city of Hamtramck said they are expecting business to boom Tuesday due to the Catholic tradition of indulging in fatty foods just prior to the start of Lent, the Detroit Free Press reported Tuesday.

Hamtramck Police Chief Max Garbarino, whose sister and brother-in-law work at the paczki-slinging New Palace Bakery, said he and U.S. Rep. Gary Peters, D-Mich., will be among those enjoying the pastries Tuesday.

"It's like a holiday in Hamtramck," Garbarino said.

Bethany Thayer, a Henry Ford Health Systems registered dietician and director of the hospital system's Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention in Detroit, said one paczek has about 400 calories and 25 grams of fat, requiring about four miles of walking or running to burn off.

"One time a year is probably going to be just fine," she said. "But if you're going to regularly consume that many calories and that much fat, it won't take a lot of time for your weight to go up and your cholesterol to increase."

Maker's Mark reduces alcohol content

DEERFIELD, Ill., Feb. 12 (UPI) -- The Illinois-based manufacturer of Maker's Mark bourbon whiskey said the alcohol content is being reduced from 45 percent to 42 percent.

Beam Inc., based in Deerfield, said the fast-growing demand for Maker's Mark, which has led to some customers reporting being unable to find stores with the bourbon in stock, caused the company to decide to reduce the alcohol content of the product by 3 percentage points, the Chicago Tribune reported Tuesday.

The company said there will be no change to the taste of the product and a research group was unable to tell the two versions apart by taste.

"In other words, we've made sure we didn't screw up your whiskey," Beam said in an email.

The company said it decided on the alcohol drop instead of a price hike because it did not want the beverage to be "out of reach" of customers.

Newborn giraffe doing well in Florida

MELBOURNE, Fla., Feb. 12 (UPI) -- A Florida zoo said a baby male giraffe born last week is doing well with his mother and will go on display when zookeepers determine he is ready.

Shelley Szafraniec, spokeswoman for the Brevard Zoo in Melbourne, said the unnamed Masai giraffe, born Wednesday to mother Johari and father Raffki, weighed in at 159 pounds and is standing without difficulty, the Orlando (Fla.) Sentinel reported Tuesday.

The baby giraffe is being kept out of the public eye with his mother until zookeepers decide he is ready to go on display with the rest of the zoo's herd, Szafraniec said.

Police: Wallet thief forgot own wallet

LAUDERDALE-BY-THE-SEA, Fla., Feb. 12 (UPI) -- Police in Florida said they arrested a man accused of stealing wallets from women's purses, leaving his own wallet and ID behind at the scene.

The Lauderdale-by-the-Sea police report said Stephen Maxwell, 47, stole wallets from women's purses at bars and restaurants on several occasions starting Nov. 29 and his spree continued until Saturday, when a woman interrupted him while he was digging through her purse and he fled, leaving his own wallet behind, the South Florida Sun Sentinel reported Tuesday.

"The ID card had the name and photograph of Stephen Maxwell on it," Judge John "Jay" Hurley said Monday, reading aloud from the arrest report.

"[Detectives] also looked at the closed circuit TV [recording], which showed you allegedly reaching into her purse and leaving your wallet on the bar," Hurley told Maxwell.

Police said Maxwell, who Hurley ordered to be held without bail, used the cash and credit cards from his thefts for items including cigarettes, alcohol and mobile phone cards. He also used pilfered funds to make $1 donations to the American Diabetes Association on at least three occasions, investigators said.