TWW'S CRAZY NEWS STORIES

[TexasStooge]

Lawmakers will take 2nd look at bar busts

Public floods TABC with e-mails; legislators to review program

By PETE SLOVER / The Dallas Morning News

AUSTIN, Texas – Public intoxication busts of bar patrons by the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission elicited a blast of indignant – even vicious – e-mails and calls from citizens Friday – to the agency, to journalists, and to elected officials who pledged to look into the arrests.

"I'm getting all those same e-mails, the Nazi, Taliban, Gestapo e-mails," said commission spokeswoman Carolyn Beck. "I don't really understand the hateful outrage. I don't understand, 'Die in a fire.' "

That e-mail traffic came after news reports about a stepped-up liquor-law enforcement program that has included arrests this month of patrons sitting drinking at establishments in Irving. Among those arrested was an Arkansas man who drank several beers at a hotel restaurant before he retired for the night to his room in the same hotel.

Ms. Beck said the arrests are part of a larger effort to rein in people who could be a danger to themselves or others – especially by driving drunk. In the six months ending in February, the agency issued 2,281 criminal citations, nearly double the amount for the same period the previous year.

Legislators who oversee the commission said they generally agreed with the agency's increased emphasis on public safety, including the attempt to nab potential drunken drivers early. That's why lawmakers gave the commission more than 100 new employees.

The commission was up for a periodic legislative review last year, meaning it would be eliminated if it wasn't explicitly approved by the Legislature. A complex bill to overhaul the agency and alcohol rules eventually failed, and the commission's life was extended for two years, with the understanding that its fate would be reconsidered in 2007.

But, the lawmakers said, accounts of the arrests suggest the enforcement program should be reviewed before next year, both to check for abuses and to measure its effectiveness. Even if the busts are legal, the question is whether they are the best use of the commission's resources, several said.

"Somebody hanging around the hotel, a little stumbling on the way to their room? I don't think that was what we were focusing on," said Rep. Peggy Hamric, R-Houston, who authored the proposed rewrite of the statute authorizing the agency.

Rep. Kino Flores, chairman of the House Licensing and Administrative Procedures, said he plans to call a meeting next month to examine the alcohol commission's work.

"We're looking at it and we're going to be looking at it: Are we going too far, or do we need to go further?" the Mission Democrat said.

Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston, was instrumental in getting the increased staffing, as a member of both the powerful Senate Finance Committee and the Criminal Justice Committee, which oversees the alcohol commission.

Although he agreed hearings are merited, he defended the principle of in-bar citations.

"Even though a public drunk is not planning on driving, that could change in an instant," he said. "There is certainly potential danger."

Mr. Whitmire said lawmakers should examine whether the agency, which is funded by fees it collects, is motivated to stricter enforcement by fiscal concerns.

Sen. Chris Harris, a Republican whose district includes Irving, called the arrests in his area "very questionable."

"At first, I was generally totally in agreement with them," he said. "But there are too many stories that demonstrate an abuse of power."

He also questioned the agency's judgment in sending him and other lawmakers lengthy list of media "talking points" Friday, in an e-mail from the commission administrator, Alan Steen.

The senator's displeasure at that perceived breach of protocol was made clear in his reply to Mr. Steen, a one-sentence e-mail that read: "WHO IN THE DAMN HELL DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?"

Texas Restaurant Association officials have declined to comment on the enforcement actions. But the executive director of a national restaurant trade group Friday termed the sweeps "neo-prohibitionism," which he blamed on the Irving-based group Mothers Against Drunk Driving. MADD issued a statement supporting the alcohol commission's efforts.

Mr. Harris said he questions the underlying public intoxication statute, especially provisions that give officers discretion to declare a person drunk without any breathalyzer or objective tests.

Commission officials noted that being drunk in public is against the law and that any place licensed to serve booze is, by law, a public place – including restaurants in dry areas that sell so-called private memberships to let patrons drink.

"We can't ignore somebody who's obviously breaking the law," Ms. Beck said.

[TexasStooge]

Illness hoax earns woman sympathy, money -- and jail time

Pain drug addict's hoax earned her sympathy, money -- and jail time

By DONNA FIELDER / Denton Record-Chronicle

DENTON, Texas - Day after day last spring, special education students told an ailing Delena Taylor, "Everything is going to be all right," as they patted her on the shoulder.

Teachers at Newton Rayzor Elementary School saw her shaved head and watched her come in late, straight from chemotherapy, she said.

So they gave their co-worker money, as well as their unused sick time, for Ms. Taylor to use for her daily cancer treatments. They also asked their friends for donations. They knew she could use the help: She was a divorced mother of four children.

They didn't doubt that the end was near.

But Delena Taylor didn't have cancer.

What she had was an addiction to "a plethora" of prescription pain medication, mostly hydrocodone, she said last week from a Denton County Jail cell. She blames that addiction for setting her on a downward spiral that led her to alter a $2,000 check made out to a cancer treatment center and deposit it in her own account.

"I can look back now when I'm straight and clean, and say to myself, 'Oh my God, Delena. How could you have done these things?' I'm not a bad person," she said. "I just made a huge mistake."

The "mistake" ended with a forgery charge, to which she pleaded guilty on March 16 in a Denton County court. She received a two-year sentence probated over four years, a $1,000 fine and must make restitution to the man who wrote the $2,000 check.

As a condition of the probation, state District Judge Lee Gabriel ordered Ms. Taylor to spend 30 days in the Denton County Jail. She will be free in mid-April.

The charade started a year ago, when Ms. Taylor, 37, came to school and told friends and co-workers she had uterine cancer. They were shocked and saddened and wanted to help.

Melissa Niederaurer, an educational diagnostician who works with special education students in the Denton Independent School District, learned of Ms. Taylor's problem and was sympathetic, she said, because she has survived cancer.

Charitable donations

Ms. Niederaurer gave money to Ms. Taylor and told her daughter of the woman's plight. Her daughter also donated money. The daughter asked a friend to help, and he wrote a check for $2,000.

Lynn Gregory is an Abilene businessman with a big heart. When he heard about the terminally ill woman with four children, he didn't hesitate to write the check, he said in a telephone interview.

"I did that wholeheartedly, thinking I was helping somebody," Mr. Gregory said. "It always paid off tenfold before. I guess it didn't this time."

Ms. Niederaurer and her daughter used the donation to obtain a cashier's check, which they had made out to the Texas Cancer Center in Denton. They wanted to help defray Ms. Taylor's medical expenses, which she told them included medication and $35 a day for treatments.

Ms. Taylor came in late every morning, claiming to have visited the clinic for a treatment, Ms. Niederaurer said. She seemed exhausted and upset, and the classroom teachers made a pallet in the back of the room so she could rest. The children believed their aide was very ill and gave her hugs and pats and read her stories.

One day, Ms. Taylor came in with her head shaved. She explained her hair was falling out because of the treatments.

Shortly before school let out for the summer, school staff gave her a luncheon and presented her with cash and gifts.

Then Ms. Niederaurer received a call from a bank. Ms. Taylor was trying to cash the $2,000 check but was refused because it was made out to the cancer clinic. Ms. Niederaurer assumed the sick woman misunderstood what the check was for.

Later, she later learned that Ms. Taylor had altered the check and had deposited it into her own bank account.

Soon after school began again, Ms. Niederaurer went to Denton school Superintendent Ray Braswell and learned that he had already launched an investigation. In September, she filed a report with Denton police, who arrested Ms. Taylor on a charge of forgery of a financial instrument, a state jail felony.

Ms. Taylor resigned from the school district.

"Everyone believed her," Ms. Niederaurer said. "She seemed very upset. It's sad that someone who might need help next time might not get it because people are wary after what she did. If I've learned anything from this, it is to take financial help directly to the provider."

Mr. Braswell said because Ms. Taylor's case is a personnel issue, there is little he can say about it.

"It's a sad case. A lot of people were trying to help her. Her colleagues and her students trusted and believed her," he said. "It saddens us all when that trust is violated."

Ms. Taylor, wearing an orange jail uniform, sobbed as she tried to explain what happened.

'I'm more than sorry'

"I'm more than sorry for what I did. I've lost every friend I ever had over this. I never got up one morning and thought, 'Today, I'm going to ruin my life. I'm going to lie to people.' "

The events leading up to the lies began last March, when she went to the doctor for an exam before she was to be married, she said. She had gone through a difficult divorce and was in a custody battle for her children. Her pap test came back showing possible signs of cancer and she was scheduled for more tests. She told her friends and co-workers at school that she had cancer.

"I thought I was going to die. I was upset, and then my fiancé broke off with me. I was in so much emotional pain, and I had all this pain medication from hurting my back, so I started taking it. Before I knew it, I was out of control."

By the time she learned she didn't actually have cancer, she said, she had become addicted to the medication. And that, she said, was the basis for her lies. Her fiancé married her, thinking she was dying, she said. Her children also believed she was terminally ill.

"I don't know what I was thinking. People were doing all this stuff for me. People were helping me, and I felt so bad. I felt so guilty. But I didn't know how to stop it."

The lies began unraveling in August. On Aug. 19, she took an overdose of the pain medication in a suicide attempt, she said. Three days later she entered a psychiatric center, where she stayed for five days.

But, by that time, the damage had been done, and her arrest came several weeks after that.

Ms. Taylor said she has not taken the prescription medication since her stay in the psychiatric center.

She said her husband – whom she declined to name – is sticking by her, and her children are relieved she is not going to die. She has always been a Christian, she said, and she attends Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous meetings.

She still faces an unrelated charge of making a false report to a police officer in connection with a claim she recently made that her daughter had been kidnapped and held against her will in Oklahoma.

Working with young children had been her dream job, she said. She'd been an aide for six years and was attending college to earn a teaching degree.

That dream is gone.

"When I get out of here, it's not going to be over for me, or for my kids. When good people do bad stuff, they don't get to be forgiven," she said. "I have a hard time forgiving myself."

[TexasStooge]

Is it a football? No, it's an enormous Cypriot lemon

PSEVDHAS, Cyprus (Reuters) - Lemon trees in a village in Cyprus have stunned their owners by suddenly bearing fruit so huge they're almost as large as footballs. One tree has clumps of lemons with diameters ranging from four to eight inches, making visitors wonder if there's something in the water. But the owners say it's all organic.

"The tree was grafted, and we haven't used anything we didn't on the other trees," says Androulla Charalambous, who has one of the super-trees in her back garden in Psevdhas, some 20 miles southeast of the Cypriot capital Nicosia.

Residents said several other villagers also had trees with lemons of similar size.

"They have a lot of juice in them, and we use the peel to make candied fruit," Charalambous said.

[TexasStooge]

Wis. Couple Lose 125 Pounds and Win $1,200

FOND DU LAC, Wis. (AP) - Tim and Molly Haack are a combined 125 pounds lighter and their wallets are $1,200 fatter after winning a weight loss contest. The contest, sponsored by radio station WTCX-FM of Fond du Lac, encouraged pairs or partners to lose weight together and rewarded those who lost the greatest percentage of body weight in 12 weeks.

The Haacks went to the YMCA twice a day and completely changed their eating habits, Molly Haack said.

For their weight-loss ways, the Haacks won $1,200 in cash, a yearlong membership to the YMCA, a year's worth of free food from a sandwich chain and $1,000 in services at a salon.

"There are lots of contests that give away prizes and money, but we wanted a contest that would change someone's life," said Michael Brown, the station's marketing director.

Molly Haack said losing weight was as much mental work as it was physical.

"You have to decide to do it and be committed to it," she said. "And now I'm a better wife, mother and employee because I take better care of myself."

[TexasStooge]

Malaysia Opens Drive-In Massage Parlor

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) - Stressed out during a long drive? Road hogs driving you up the wall? The Malaysian government is only too happy to help. The country's first highway drive-in massage parlor opened Monday, with the aim of reducing accidents by easing tense muscles of stressed-out drivers. The parlors will be equipped with automatic massage chairs.

"I hope highway users will use this facility," Works Minister S. Samy Vellu said.

Samy opened the first massage center along the North-South Highway, and said the government was planning to open another center this year.

The North-South Highway is the country's main highway, and stretches the length of Peninsular Malaysia.

Hundreds of thousands of Malaysians commute along a web of highways daily, but accidents — and deaths — typically rise during festive occasions when millions leave Kuala Lumpur and major cities during extended holidays.

[TexasStooge]

Wyo. Mayor Launches Pothole Patrol Contest

SHERIDAN, Wyo. (AP) - People tired of rattling over potholes on their street are getting an opportunity to rattle their keyboards and, possibly, shake City Hall into action.

Mayor Dave Kinskey is sponsoring a "pothole patrol" contest.

Through April 3, residents can e-mail Kinskey or call City Hall to vote their street as the worst in town for potholes.

Residents are asked to consider three criteria: width, depth and number of potholes. The winning street will be moved up on the city's repair priority list, Kinskey said.

Already, Crescent Electric Supply has mounted an aggressive campaign for its street, North Broadway, to win the contest. Employee Danielle Brockman put up a sign outside encouraging people to vote for North Broadway as the most potholed.

"Pave our street!" she said.

[TexasStooge]

Dakota Sioux Language Saved by Scrabble

HANKINSON, N.D. (AP) - Those who hope they can stop the Dakota Sioux language from dying have hit on the perfect word: Scrabble.

A special Scrabble tournament in the language made its debut Friday, pitting teams from Sioux reservation schools in North Dakota, South Dakota and Manitoba.

The game is part of the tribe's campaign to revitalize the Dakota language, now spoken fluently by a dwindling number of elders. One survey predicted the last fluent Sisseton-Wahpeton Dakota speaker would die in 2025.

"With these efforts, we'll try to prolong that," Darell DeCoteau said as he gestured to a nearby Scrabble board. "This will probably push that back a little bit."

"Start in the middle," David Seaboy told a group of middle-school students from the Enemy Swim Day School at Waubay, S.D. "Everybody help somebody make a word."

The first word to take shape was sa, pronounced "shah" — the color red.

After a few minutes of frantic consultation with the official Dakota Sioux Scrabble dictionary, a team built on the base to form the word sapa, pronounced "shah-pa," or dirty, a word worth seven points.

"This is a good stimulant for the mind," said Seaboy, 63, one of a group of Sisseton-Wahpeton elders, all fluent in the language, who wrote the 207-page Dakota dictionary.

[TexasStooge]

Indian told to leave wife after "divorce" in sleep

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - A Muslim couple in India have been told by local Islamic leaders they must separate after the husband "divorced" his wife in his sleep, the Press Trust of India reported.

Sohela Ansari told friends that her husband Aftab had uttered the word "talaq", or divorce, three times in his sleep, according to the report published in newspapers on Monday.

When local Islamic leaders got to hear, they said Aftab's words constituted a divorce under an Islamic procedure known as "triple talaq". The couple, married for 11 years with three children, were told they had to split.

The religious leaders ruled that if the couple wanted to remarry they would have to wait at least 100 days. Sohela would also have to spend a night with another man and be divorced by him in turn.

The couple, who live in the eastern state of West Bengal, have refused to obey the order and the issue has been referred to a local family counselling centre.

India's minority Muslim population is governed by Islamic personal laws on issues such as marriage, divorce and property inheritance.

"This is a totally unnecessary controversy and the local 'community leaders' or whosoever has said it are totally ignorant of Islamic law," said Zafarul-Islam Khan, an Islamic scholar and editor of The Milli Gazette, a popular Muslim newspaper.

"The law clearly says any action under compulsion or in a state of intoxication has no effect. The case of someone uttering something while asleep falls under this category and will have no impact whatsoever," Khan told Reuters.

[TexasStooge]

Chavez says arrows await "gringo" invaders

CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) - Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez on Sunday said he would have a nasty welcome waiting for U.S. forces he insists are preparing to invade his country -- arrows laced with Indian poison.

The left-wing former soldier, who has ordered his military to train civilian reserves for a guerrilla war, including the use of bows and arrows, often accuses Washington of planning to invade to control Venezuela's vast oil reserves.

U.S. officials dismiss his assassination and invasion charges as populist rhetoric meant to mobilise supporters before presidential elections in December. But they say Chavez is an anti-democratic threat to the region.

With an audience of ministers, army officers and local officials chuckling, Chavez remarked on how he would target U.S. soldiers with arrows covered with curare, an Amazon Indian poison made from plants.

"I am going to practice with a bow and arrow. If we have to put a few arrows into any invading gringo, then you'll be done in 30 seconds, my dear gringo," Chavez said pointing to his neck during his regular Sunday television broadcast.

Chavez has become a fierce critic of U.S. President George W. Bush, labelling him everything from a "terrorist" to a "donkey," as the two governments clash over Chavez's socialist revolution and his close ties to U.S. foes Cuba and Iran.

Venezuela troops have started training for an asymmetric war or conflict of resistance and Chavez has worried Washington by reaching out to Russia, Spain and Brazil to purchase military helicopters, boats, planes and new rifles.

Chavez's opposition to U.S. free-trade proposals have won him support among resurgent left-wing movements in South America, where a string of socialist presidents have come to office, most recently in Bolivia and Chile.

The Venezuelan leader on Sunday accused Washington of planning to undermine the credibility of upcoming elections in Venezuela and in Peru, where nationalist candidate Ollanta Humala is ahead of a conservative candidate in the polls.

[TexasStooge]

Berlusconi says Maoist communists boiled babies

NAPLES, Italy (Reuters) - Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, fighting for re-election against a centre-left coalition which includes the hard left, said on Sunday that communists had a history of boiling babies.

"I have been accused many times of saying communists eat babies," he told a rally of his Forza Italia (Go Italy!) party.

"Go and read the black book on communism and you'll find that under Mao's China they didn't eat babies but they boiled them to fertilise the fields.

"They say we look to the past too much, but they forget that in the opposition there are three parties who proudly call themselves communists."

Berlusconi has often been accused of being obsessed with the "communist threat" in Italy, a country where during the Cold War the communist party was bigger than anywhere else in western Europe.

In the run-up to winning the 2001 election, Berlusconi said: "I can organise a conference in which I will prove communists have really eaten babies and done even worse things."

With the collapse of the Berlin Wall and the Soviet Union, most of the Italian Communist Party transformed itself into the Democrats of the Left, now Italy's main opposition party.

But smaller breakaway communist parties still exist. The biggest, Communist Refoundation is likely to poll 6-7 percent of the vote at the April 9-10 election, opinion polls indicate. Another, Italian Communists, may get up to 3 percent.

Polls put the centre-left bloc, led by former European Commission President Romano Prodi, 4-5 percentage points ahead of Berlusconi's centre-right.

[TexasStooge]

Blair asks: "Where the bloody hell am I?"

CANBERRA, Australia (Reuters) - Prime Minister Tony Blair demonstrated his affinity for Australia on Monday and threw his support behind the country's controversial "bloody hell" tourism ads which aim to attract foreign tourists down under.

The ad campaign, which ends with a bikini-clad woman on a beach asking "so where the bloody hell are you?", was temporarily banned from British television because of its language.

Blair made light of the issue during an address to a state lunch in Australia's parliament house, saying he had hardly stopped since arriving late Saturday after a 19-hour direct flight to Australia from Brussels.

"And here I am, in the Australian parliament building at what I think is something like four o'clock in the morning in the UK. And so I'm thinking, so where the bloody hell am I?" he said.

Blair earlier spoke of his early memories of Australia from his time living in the southern city of Adelaide from the age of 2 to 5, saying Australia was in his spirit, if not in his blood.

Howard also quoted from the campaign in his welcoming remarks when he referred to Blair's early links with Australia, asking him: "Well where in the hell have you been?"
_____________________________________________________________

From now on, the slogan of this thread will be "What the bloody hell is wrong with this picture?"

[TexasStooge]

Drunkard kills himself over meatless dinner

AHMEDABAD, India (Reuters) - A jobless alcoholic burned himself to death after his wife refused to serve him meat for dinner, Indian police said Sunday.

Sixty-year-old Mithailal Ram Sanjivan doused his body with an inflammable liquid and set himself ablaze outside his one-room house in Ahmedabad, the main city of western Gujarat state.

Police said the victim, who had been without a job for years, and his wife, Geeta Sanjivan, 54, had a scuffle over the dinner menu.

The wife refused to cook meat as they could not afford it.

Irritated by this, Sanjivan locked her in the house before setting himself on fire outside.

[TexasStooge]

Chancellor's apartment caught on museum camera

BERLIN, Germany (Reuters) - A 24-hour security camera on top of Berlin's Pergamon Museum was able to film German Chancellor Angela Merkel's Berlin apartment for several years before authorities realized, a newspaper reported Sunday.

The camera was not only able to film the outside of Merkel's apartment, opposite the museum in the center of the German capital, but even recorded shots of Merkel's husband, Joachim Sauer, in the living room, according to Bild am Sonntag.

A spokesman for Germany's federal criminal police office (BKA) confirmed the case Sunday and said the circumstances were being investigated.

A museum spokesman told Bild am Sonntag the camera had been adjusted Friday to prevent further filming.

[TexasStooge]

Canadian loads college hopes on "Brokeback" truck

By Danny Glenwright

TORONTO, Canada (Reuters) - A half-ton pick-up truck used in the award-winning gay Western "Brokeback Mountain" is up for sale, and the seller, a Canadian high school student, hopes the proceeds will help pay his way through college.

Matthew Kennedy said he bought the black, 1950 GMC truck last year at an auction of vehicles used in the movie because he liked its looks, and only decided to sell when he realised the amount of attention the film was garnering.

"The movie was getting a lot bigger and I thought I could sell it and put away the money for school," he said.

Kennedy's eBay description of the vehicle says it was driven by Jack Twist, played by Jake Gyllenhaal, when he meets Ennis Del Mar, played by Heath Ledger, at the start of the film.

Bidding has reached $15,000 so far, almost double the $8,000 starting price, fuelled by the ties to the film.

The movie, centring on the furtive love affair between two cowboys, was shot in the Alberta foothills, south of Calgary.

"The only thing I knew about the movie was that it was being filmed in my area and it was a cowboy movie," he said.

Murray Ord, executive producer at Alberta Film Entertainment, said it's standard procedure to sell film gear post-production. "Whether it be furniture, props, anything we purchased, we try to recoup the cost," he said.

Murray Pomerance, a sociologist and author of several books about cinema compared the pickup truck with items such as Dorothy's shoes from "The Wizard of Oz" and prosthetic masks from "Star Trek".

"With certain films that are distinctive in one way or another...this desire to imbed oneself in the context of the film is huge," he said.

"We're actually taking the truck and marketing it. Young people want to play at being characters...they're going to want to drive that truck...it's the ultimate way to play the game."

Bidding at http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=4625292939, closes on Thursday, March 30 at 11 p.m. EST.

[TexasStooge]

Lawyer in midst of divorce sues dating service

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. (Reuters) - A California man in the process of getting a divorce said on Monday he was suing a popular online dating service that barred him from joining until his marriage is officially over.

John Claassen, a 36-year-old lawyer, said he was ready to resume dating but maintains that Pasadena, California-based agency eHarmony is violating his civil rights by not letting him use its service before his divorce is official.

The Oakland, California-based lawyer said he is asking a state judge to end eHarmony's policy of only admitting unmarried people to its dating service. "There are a lot of people out there in my situation who would like to move on but under these policies can't," Claassen said.

The company, which advertises it is "dedicated to helping serious singles build lasting relationships," did not return calls for comment.

Claassen said his lawsuit is based on a state law requiring businesses to disregard a person's marital status in the provision of services.

[TexasStooge]

Luxury trains evoke romantic era of rail travel

By Ian MacKenzie

EDINBURGH, Scotland (Reuters) - Well-heeled tourists, eager to rediscover the romance of an earlier era, are taking to the rails in increasing numbers on board trains with names that evoke the age of luxury travel.

The dark blue and gold coaches of the Venice Simplon-Orient Express wend their way across Europe in a style that recalls the high life of the 1920s when champagne flowed and dinner jackets, jewels and gowns were de rigueur.

Passengers boarding the Royal Scotsman at Edinburgh's Waverley station are greeted by a piper, a red carpet and glasses of bubbly, and ordinary travellers gawp in astonishment as the nine red and gold carriages pull out sedately, heading for the Scottish Highlands.

"The luxury rail market is growing and a better understanding is being developed of the different types of luxury rail experience on offer," said Nick Varian, vice-president of trains and cruises for Orient Express Hotels, the Bermuda-based luxury hotel and travel group.

Operating such trains is steadily moving out of the reach of enthusiastic amateurs, and luxury does not come cheap: a two-day London-Venice trip on the Orient Express costs 1,390 pounds one way for each of two people sharing a compartment, while the annual six-day Paris-Istanbul journey -- the old Orient Express route -- has a price tag of 4,100 pounds a head.

The Royal Scotsman, which carries a maximum of 36 guests, charges 2,990 pounds per person for its all-inclusive four-night "Classic" journey through the Highlands.

The Royal Scotsman is half-owned by two British businessmen and half by the Orient Express group, which will increase its stake over a period of years.

"There will no doubt be further consolidation from the supplier side of the market and economics and regulations will preclude the entry of many more enthusiastic amateurs," Varian told Reuters in an e-mail interview.

He said of the Orient Hotel company: "New trains and destinations are likely to be introduced, but slowly with the emphasis on niche market experiences. Strong links with landmark hotels at each end of the rail journey is also likely to play a big part in the development of new routes."

The company is an investor in about 49 luxury hotel, restaurant, tourist train -- which also include Asia and South America -- and river cruise properties in 25 countries.

The train and cruise division account for about 20 percent of investment and profit a year. Revenue income rose to 369 million dollars in 2004 from 329.4 million in 2003, with net earnings of 28.2 million dollars, compared with 23.6 million.

The Royal Scotsman, which includes a refurbished carriage used by Prime Minister Winston Churchill towards the end of World War Two, has a crew of 14, including a top-flight chef.

Retired Royal Marine Brigadier Ian Gardiner, one of three senior ex-military officers who rotate as "hosts" aboard the train, says the key to a luxury trip is an attentive staff.

"It is theatre in so far as the stage is Scotland, the set is the train, the audience the guests, and the players are the crew on the train," he said.

"If the players are excellent, they can turn a mediocre play into an excellent play. The whole thing is that it all depends on people," he said.

On one trip, the well-stocked bar failed to produce a particular brand of American whiskey for a traveller from the U.S. state of Montana.

An urgent appeal went out and the whiskey was waiting at the next stop. "That's service," the happy client said.

Asked if the threat of terrorism and political upheaval had affected luxury tourism, Varian said the diversity of the Orient Express portfolio lessened the impact of such threats to the business as a whole.

"Overall long-haul travel suffered post 9/11...particularly from the U.S. and Japan, but this continues to recover. The U.K. market has been particularly strong in recent years. Neither London nor Madrid bombs had a long term impact."

On the bird flu threat, he said there had been no effect so far, adding that the annual Paris-Istanbul trip in early September was fully booked in both directions.

"At the high end, leisure travellers tend to be more resilient because they are more globally aware and move around a lot in their working lives," he added.

Orient Express clientele varied according to season and train, but the "big five" -- the United States, Britain France, Germany and Japan -- made up significant numbers. The Venice Simplon-Orient Express carried about 40 nationalities in 2005.

Varian said Orient Express had recently bought the carriages formerly used by the Great South Pacific Express luxury train in Australia and were looking at ways to re-introduce them in a different region. He hoped an announcement would be made in the coming months.

"We separately have an ongoing study with the Chinese Railway Ministry, but this is not yet close to being realised. Looking further ahead, the other key markets where luxury train travel is most likely to expand are Russia and maybe South America."

[TexasStooge]

Man Is Charged $4,300 for Four Burgers

PALMDALE, Calif. (AP) - Four burgers at his neighborhood Burger King cost George Beane a whopping $4,334.33.

Beane ordered two Whopper Jr.s and two Rodeo cheeseburgers when he pulled up to the drive-through window last Tuesday. The cashier, however, forgot that she'd entered the $4.33 charge on his debit card and punched in the numbers again without erasing the original ones — thus creating a four-figure bill.

The electronic charge went through to George and Pat Beane's Bank of America checking account and left the couple penniless. Their mortgage payment was due and they worried checks they had written would bounce, Pat Beane said.

"We were thinking, 'No, not now!'" she said of the overcharge.

Terri Woody, the restaurant manager, said Burger King officials tried to get the charge refunded. But the bank said the funds were on a three-day hold and could not be released, Pat Beane said.

The hold is designed to prevent customers from spending money that no longer is available in their accounts and to let the bank confirm a transaction is legitimate before transferring funds, said Bank of America supervisor Joel Solorio.

Burger King did not charge the Beanes for their meal, and the couple got their $4,334.33 back on Friday.

"For those three days, those were the most expensive value burgers in history," Pat Beane said.
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Information from: Antelope Valley Press
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Gee, I wonder why I don't go to Burger King.

[TexasStooge]

Police: Pa. teens killed man after he mooned them

PHILADELPHIA, Penn. (AP) – Two teenagers taunted a man rummaging through a trash bin and then killed him after he bared his buttocks at them, police said Tuesday.

"He didn't want to be harassed by these kids or whatever and he mooned them," Upper Darby Township Police Sgt. David Madonna said.

Christopher McEneaney, 16, and Andre Mark, 18, were charged Monday in the slaying Friday night of Martin Malone, 47. He was stabbed with a multi-tool and bludgeoned with a shovel.

Police said the teens were walking through an apartment complex just outside Philadelphia when they saw Malone picking through the trash and began calling him a "bum" and other names, Madonna said. Malone responded by exposing his buttocks.

The teens threw rocks at him and then attacked him, leaving him to die in a field, police said.

Police arrested the two after witnesses described the clothing the attackers were wearing.

Malone had lived with his sister, Molly Munsell, for about a year.

"He didn't deserve what happened to him," Munsell told the Philadelphia Daily News. "He was just one of those people who minded his own business."

An official in the prosecutor's office said Tuesday that he didn't know whether the teens had lawyers.

[TexasStooge]

Child poetry plagiarist unmasked

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - The 10-year-old winner of a children's poetry competition had to hand back her prize money after newspaper readers noticed that her poem was the work of a well known writer.

"It's a mini drama for her. She did not realize it had been written by someone else," a member of the competition jury said Tuesday. "It started as a school project and was followed by many events ... probably she just forgot."

The parents of primary school pupil Fieke agreed to give back the 125 euro ($150) prize and the jury admitted it should have recognized the work of children's author Francine Oomen earlier.

[TexasStooge]

Crazy Cat in Conn. Ambushes the Avon Lady

FAIRFIELD, Conn. (AP) - Residents of the neighborhood of Sunset Circle say they have been terrorized by a crazy cat named Lewis. Lewis for his part has been uniquely cited, personally issued a restraining order by the town's animal control officer.

"He looks like Felix the Cat and has six toes on each foot, each with a long claw," Janet Kettman, a neighbor said Monday. "They are formidable weapons."

The neighbors said those weapons, along with catlike stealth, have allowed Lewis to attack at least a half dozen people and ambush the Avon lady as she was getting out of her car.

Some of those who were bitten and scratched ended up seeking treatment at area hospitals.

Animal Control Officer Rachel Solveira placed a restraining order on him. It was the first time such an action was taken against a cat in Fairfield.

In effect, Lewis is under house arrest, forbidden to leave his home.

Solveira also arrested the cat's owner, Ruth Cisero, charging her with failing to comply with the restraining order and reckless endangerment.
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Information from: Connecticut Post