TWW'S CRAZY NEWS STORIES

[rainstorm]

Tahoe bear swills booze with pizza snack

STATELINE, Nev. (AP) - A bear cub drew a crowd of spectators at a Lake Tahoe neighborhood as it munched on barbecue-chicken-and-jalapeno pizza in the back seat of a vintage red Buick convertible.

It also apparently washed it down with a swig of a Jack Daniel's mixer, an Absolut vodka and tonic, and a beer taken from a cooler, the vehicle's owner said.

About 30 people watched the cub lumber around a parking lot in upper Kingbury Grade on Sunday before it homed in on the Buick and the spicy pizza on the floor.

The bruin was unfazed by the car's horn the blew nonstop as the cub pressed the seat into the steering wheel.

"The bear was loping along in the parking lot and then decides to get inside the car," said resident Jerry Patterson.

"People were screaming at him, the horn was going off, but he was completely unaware. He did what he wanted to do and the people didn't matter."

The bear remained inside the 1964 Buick Skylark for about 20 minutes and at times put his paws on the dash as if he were holding on for a ride, Patterson said.

The owner of the car, David Ziello of South Lake Tahoe, said the bruin didn't cause any damage, but slopped cheese and jalapenos on the seats and floor.

Carl Lackey, a biologist with the Nevada Department of Wildlife, said up to two dozen bears live in the Kingsbury region near the south shore of Lake Tahoe.

The residential area sees more of them because the bears have found a primary source from Dumpsters and people who leave their food and trash in the open, said Lackey, who tracks and relocates bears on the Nevada side of the Tahoe basin.

Lackey warned visitors and residents against keeping food inside their vehicles.

"When you are in bear habitat, regardless of the time of year, you cannot leave any kind of food out — whether it's food inside the car, trash inside or outside your car, or pet food," Lackey said.

"Bears will find it and in doing so, it is increasing your chances of serious conflict."
___

Information from: Tahoe Daily Tribune

sounds tasty

[TexasStooge]

Mouse potatoes, himbos and googling go mainstream

By Jill Serjeant

LOS ANGELES, Calif. (Reuters) - Mouse potatoes joined couch potatoes, google officially became a verb and drama queens finally found the limelight on Thursday when they crossed over from popular culture to mainstream English language.

The mouse potato (who spends as much time on the computer as his/her 1990s counterpart did on the couch), the himbo (attractive, vacuous -- and male) and the excessively emotional drama queen were among 100 new words added to the 2006 update of America's best-selling dictionary, the Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary.

The Internet search engine Google also found its way into the dictionary for the first time as a verb, meaning to find information quickly on the world wide web.

New words and phrases from the fields of science, technology, pop culture and industry are chosen each year by Merriam-Webster's team of editors after months of poring over books, magazines and even food labels.

"They are not tracking verbal language. They are looking for evidence that words have become assimilated into the written English language," said Arthur Bicknell, senior publicist with Merriam-Webster.

"Unfortunately with slang words by the time it has become assimilated it probably isn't cool anymore. If the grown-ups are using it, forget it!," Bicknell said.

Other words making their debut this year were soul patch (a small growth of beard under a man's lower lip), unibrow (two eyebrows joining together) and supersize -- the fast food industry phrase for extra large meals.

The technology world contributed ringtones (changeable incoming cellphone call signals) and spyware (software installed in a computer to surreptiously track a user's activities) while biodiesel and avian influenza came from the world of science.

America's first dictionary -- Noah Webster's A Compendious Dictionary of the English Language -- was published 200 years ago and also introduced a crop of fresh words that have now become familiar.

Those "new" words in 1806 included slang, surf, psychology and, naturally, Americanize.

[TexasStooge]

Gay prince out of closet, loses inheritance

By Krittivas Mukherjee

MUMBAI (Reuters) - An Indian prince has been disowned by his family after he publicly announced he was gay in a country where homosexuality is outlawed by a 145-year-old law.

Prince Manvendra Singh Gohil, who belongs to one of the country's richest royal families that ruled the former Rajpipla principality in the western state of Gujarat, has been disowned for "activities unacceptable to the society," one disinheritance notice placed by his parents in a newspaper said.

Last month, his parents issued notices in a Gujarati language daily withdrawing his right to the family property.

"Henceforth, no one must refer to my name as mother of Manvendra," one notice signed by his mother said. "If any individual or organization dares to do so, it will invite contempt proceedings."

But Gohil, 40, who announced he was gay this year, says he has found happiness among Gujarat's gay community and is not interested in his inheritance.

"I could not have lived a lie forever," he told Reuters on Friday.

"I will not stake my claim to the property. I have found a family in the (gay) community and am happy working for the community," said Gohil, who runs an NGO working on HIV/AIDS among homosexuals.

"As an activist, I thought it right to come out of the closet first. Otherwise, it would have been living a lie."

Homosexuality is banned in India and punishable by up to 10 years in jail, but gay activists are trying to lift the veil of secrecy over the community in a country where public hugging or kissing even among heterosexuals invites angry stares, lewd comments and even beatings.

Gay support groups say the anti-homosexuality law -- framed by British colonial rulers in 1861 -- must be scrapped for an effective fight against HIV/AIDS because many homosexuals refuse to come out in the open fearing harassment by authorities.

UNAIDS says there are an estimated 5.7 million Indians living with HIV, many of them homosexuals.

India abolished princely kingdoms after independence from Britain in 1947, but many royal families continue to lead lavish lives in sprawling palaces.

[TexasStooge]

Teen's name changed after years of mockery

HANOI, Vietnam (AP) - After nearly two decades of ridicule, a father has agreed to change his son's name from "Fined Six Thousand and Five Hundred" — the amount he was forced to pay in local currency for ignoring Vietnam's two-child policy.

Angry he was being fined for having a fifth child, Mai Xuan Can named his son Mai Phat Sau Nghin Ruoi after the amount he was forced to pay — 6,500 dong (50 cents), said Dai Cuong village chief Nguyen Huy Thuong.

In 1999, local government officials tried to persuade Can to change the name because the boy was constantly being teased by classmates at school. But Can, a former People's Committee official, refused to back down, Thuong said. They appealed to him again recently, and this time it worked.

"I told him that as his son is growing up, he should have another name — not that weird name — and he finally agreed," Thuong said.

The son, now 19, finally got a new name: Mai Hoang Long, which means golden dragon.

[TexasStooge]

Russian president explains kiss

MOSCOW, Russia (AP) - In between answering questions Thursday about North Korea's missiles, Iran's nuclear program and relations with the United States, Russian President Vladimir Putin answered what was for many observers a more burning question: What compelled him to kiss the bare stomach of a young boy in a Kremlin courtyard?

Footage of the June 28 incident was broadcast on all Russian television stations. It quickly became fodder for Internet chat rooms and topped the Moscow tabloids the day after. The question was one of the most popular among the thousands e-mailed in for a live Kremlin Internet conference carried on the British Broadcasting Corp. Web site and a Russian site.

In the footage, Putin, 53, is shown walking up to a small crowd of tourists in a Kremlin courtyard and crouching down in front of the boy, who appears to be five or six years old. As the Russian president talks with Nikita for several seconds, he tugs at the boy's shirt before finally lifting it up and kissing him on his bare stomach.

"He seemed to me very independent, very serious, but at the same time a boy is always vulnerable. He was very sweet. I'll be honest, I felt an urge to squeeze him like a kitten and that led to the gesture that I made. There was nothing behind it really," Putin said, smiling.

[TexasStooge]

Missing balloon found, but it's not Krystal's

Denton: Year of burgers offered for safe return of Krystal floating ad

By DONNA FIELDER / Denton Record-Chronicle

DENTON, Texas - Who knew there'd be two loose balloons in Denton?

Police had been looking for a large balloon missing from the Krystal fast-food restaurant on South Loop 288 since Monday. They recovered one in a treetop on South Loop 288 on Friday afternoon.

Wrong balloon.

"That one is not ours," said Margarita Alvarado, manager of the Denton Krystal restaurant. "That one is just white and red, and ours also has yellow and our logo on it. We're still hoping we're going to find ours."

The Krystal balloon disappeared from its mooring in front of the new burger restaurant between Saturday and Monday. Someone apparently unplugged the cord from the motor that kept it afloat and made off with the whole thing.

Krystal offered a bag of burgers every week for a year for the balloon's safe return, no questions asked. The manager contacted Denton police.

Meanwhile, media coverage of the missing airborne advertisement prompted a call to the Denton County Crime Stoppers hotline Friday morning.

"A woman who didn't identify herself called and said, 'I think I know where you can find that missing balloon.' She said it was in a tree in front of a parking lot on the loop. She didn't want a reward and didn't say anything about any burgers," Sheriff's Sgt. Roger Griggs said. "I drove over there and looked up, and there was a balloon."

Sgt. Griggs called Denton police Sgt. Brad Curtis. The big piece of plastic was tangled in a tree about a block northeast of Krystal. Sgt. Griggs asked for help retrieving the balloon from Frenchy Rheault, whose landscaping business maintains the small green space.

Mr. Rheault summoned two workers Friday afternoon, and they climbed the tree with long cutting tools. Down came the balloon, this one shaped like a blimp instead of the light-bulb-shaped Krystal balloon.

"Store closing sale," it read.

Mr. Rheault will store the balloon until an owner comes forward.

Sgt. Curtis said police would keep an eye out for the balloon stolen from Krystal.

[TexasStooge]

Fight erupts at shoe sale; customer shot

ISTANBUL, Turkey (AP) - Chaos broke out at a shoe sale in Turkey this week, and one person got shot in the foot, a news agency reported.

The incident Friday occurred in Karabuk, a city about 125 miles north of Ankara, after people overloaded a two-story retailer that was selling pairs of shoes for as little as $6, the state-owned Anatolia news agency reported.

When customers rebelled against orders to close the store because of overcrowding and started to fight with one another and with salespeople, a store employee shot his gun into the air, Anatolia said. The bullet struck the foot of a customer, who was taken to a hospital, while the shooter was taken into police custody, the agency reported.

Shooting guns into the air is a not-uncommon method for dealing with emotional situations in Turkey, including weddings, soccer games, demonstrations and deals on shoes that are almost too good to be true.

[TexasStooge]

Jailed Mafia boss to have in-vitro baby

ROME, Italy (Reuters) - An Italian judge has ruled that a Mafia boss serving a life sentence for murder should be allowed to father a baby through artificial insemination -- and the public health service should pay for it.

In a case that is certain to stir controversy, the judge accepted the request by Salvino Madonia, who was convicted for the high-profile 1991 murder of a businessman who had refused to pay an extortion fee to the Mafia.

Madonia, 50, is detained in a high-security prison and is not allowed to meet his family, including his 32-year old wife Mariangela, in private.

"The judge decided to overcome this problem and guarantee his right to fatherhood," Madonia's lawyer Giovanni Anania was quoted as saying in Corriere della Sera daily.

Madonia will not be allowed to leave the prison for the procedure, meaning that an official from the local health service would have to go to collect his semen in jail.

It is not the first time an Italian judge has allowed Mafia detainees to have babies through artificial insemination but Madonia's case has still raised eyebrows in Roman Catholic Italy, which has one of the strictest laws on fertility treatments.

Corriere said prison officials at the Justice Ministry were opposed to the idea and that Justice Minister Clemente Mastella would likely have to rule on the case.

Madonia, who comes from a family of renowned Mafia bosses, got married in jail in 1992.

Investigators were baffled when the couple's first child was born in 2000, while Madonia was already in detention and was theoretically barred from having any private encounter with his wife.

[TexasStooge]

Briton becomes new mother at 62

LONDON, England (AP) - A 62-year-old has become the oldest British woman to give birth after delivering a healthy baby boy.

Child psychologist Patti Farrant, 62 _ known professionally as Patricia Rashbrook _ delivered her son "J.J." by Caesarean section on Wednesday.

The baby was conceived after fertility treatments.

Farrant has three grown children from a previous marriage. It is the first child for her husband John Farrant, 60, an education management consultant.

"He is adorable, and seeing him for the first time was beyond words," she was quoted as saying by The Daily Mail. "Having been through so much to have him, we are overjoyed. His birth was absolutely wonderful and deeply moving for both of us."

[TexasStooge]

Penny Lane to keep name, despite slave link

LONDON, England (AP) – Penny Lane will keep its name.

Liverpool officials said Saturday they would modify a proposal to rename streets linked to the slave trade when they realized the road made famous by the 1967 Beatles song was one of them.

The unassuming suburban avenue was named for James Penny, a wealthy 18th-century slave ship owner. Liverpool, the Beatles' northern English hometown, was once a major hub for the slave trade.

"I don't think anyone would seriously consider renaming Penny Lane," said city council member Barbara Mace, who has been pressing to get rid of names linked to slavery. "My proposal is to rename several of the streets and to replace them with the names of people who have done something positive."

Eric Lynch, 74, who gives tours focused on the history of Liverpool's involvement in the slave trade, said renaming any streets or squares would be a "disgraceful attempt to change history."

"It's like somebody in Germany deciding to bulldoze Auschwitz," Lynch said. "Like somebody deciding not to celebrate D-Day. If we don't know the past, how can we make sure we don't make the same mistakes? Are the monuments to the Irish famines going to go next?"

"You cannot and should not change history, however disagreeable it is," he said.

The 90-member council plans to talk Wednesday about a plan to rename several central Liverpool streets named for notorious slave traders.

Some want instead to honor Anthony Walker, a black teenager murdered with an ax in a July 2005 racial attack. Others suggest renaming streets for leading abolitionists.

"It's not trying to rewrite history," Mace said. "You can't. Liverpool's whole history is based on the slave trade. That's on the history books."

Liverpool was an important port of call for slave ships traveling between Africa and the Americas. During the second half of the 18th century, much of the city's economy was based on the trade.

[TexasStooge]

Man sentenced for stalking biological mother

NEW YORK (AP) – A man convicted of using threatening phone calls and faxes to terrorize a woman who put him up for adoption nearly 40 years ago has been sentenced to 37 months in prison.

Roger Siegel, 39, was convicted in January of two counts of stalking over state lines. He was acquitted on a third count.

The Chula Vista, Calif., man learned the identity of his biological mother in 2002 by persuading a court to unseal his adoption records.

When the woman, a Queens lawyer, refused to reunite with Siegel, he allegedly bombarded her with phone messages and faxes.

"I am somebody who has been deeply hurt," Siegel said at his sentencing Friday. "I was looking for what was missing in my life – a mom, a family."

At trial, the mother testified that her son was conceived in 1966, when she was raped by her ex-fiance. She told jurors she wanted no lasting tie with the father.

[TexasStooge]

Judge waives elderly woman's jaywalk fine

LOS ANGELES, Calif. (AP) - An 82-year-old woman who was given a jaywalking ticket for taking too long to cross a busy street had her $114 fine waived by a court commissioner.

Mayvis Coyle became a media sensation after the case drew publicity. Camera crews showed up at her trailer unannounced and senior citizen advocates were outraged.

Last week, Coyle received by mail the June 20 ruling from Superior Court Commissioner Jeffrey Harkavy who found her guilty of jaywalking but suspended the fine.

"It sounds like a compromise, like they're trying to save face," Coyle's son, Jim Coyle, told the Los Angeles Daily News, which first reported the incident. "We're grateful for everyone's support."

Coyle was vacationing in Colorado and was unavailable for comment.

Police officials said Coyle entered a busy San Fernando Valley intersection on Feb. 15 after the red "Don't Walk" sign began blinking. Coyle maintained she walked across the intersection with her cane in one hand and groceries in the other on a white "Walk" signal.

Coyle said a motorcycle officer who stopped her said, "You're obstructing the flow of traffic," before issuing her the ticket.

Police officials maintained throughout the case that the officer acted appropriately and was looking out for Coyle's welfare. The department subsequently launched a series of pedestrian-safety workshops at local senior centers.

"How could she have gone any faster?" said Bill Daniel, chief executive officer of ONEgeneration, a senior-services agency. "It just seems like we have to be more patient."

[TexasStooge]

Sales rep found dead at model home

MCKINNEY, Texas (WFAA ABC 8) - A female sales representative has been found dead in a model home in McKinney, police say.

Sarah Anne Walker was found inside the show home located at 5700 Conch Train Drive by a couple wanting information about property in the area.

She had suffered serious injuries from an unknown weapon and had died by the time police arrived on the scene, which was after 1 p.m.

The neighborhood is still under construction but there are several model homes open for viewing.

McKinney police detectives are still on scene collecting evidence.

No suspect has been identified nor has a motive for the crime been established.

[TexasStooge]

Dallas store owner kills robber

By BERT LOZANO / WFAA ABC 8

DALLAS, Texas -The owner of a Dallas liquor store shot and killed a robber on Saturday, say police.

The incident took place around 3 p.m. on 4900 Lamar Street.

The suspect had managed to leave with a bag of money but apparently died of gunshot wounds in the parking lot.

The suspect initially tried to cash a check.

When the sales assistant refused, the suspect then jumped over the counter, and tried to attack the woman.

The woman’s husband came from a back room to assist his wife.

Police say the suspect fired a shot from a sawn-off shot gun but missed.

That gave the 42-year-old store owner the chance to take out his gun and shoot the suspect.

Police say the store owner will not be charged as he acted in self-defense.

He is currently receiving treatment in the Baylor Medical Center.

[TexasStooge]

Police probe McKinney slaying

By BRANDON FORMBY / The Dallas Morning News

McKINNEY, Texas -- Police today continued to investigate why and how someone beat and fatally stabbed a 40-year-old house saleswoman in a McKinney model home.

Sarah Anne Walker was stabbed more than 25 times over her upper body, McKinney police Capt. Randy Roland said. He said many of her wounds were defensive, an indication that she resisted the attack.

“There was a pretty brutal crime scene in the bottom part of the model home,” Capt. Roland said. “There was a struggle throughout the downstairs.”

A couple visiting the home in the 5700 block of Conch Train Road on Saturday afternoon found Ms. Walker's body face down in the kitchen.

This morning, police tape and squad cars surrounded the home in The Hemingway at Craig Ranch community, which sits near a sprawling field and overlooks a sea of rooftops in the Collin County suburb.

Capt. Roland said investigators were working to identify potential suspects. Police think Ms. Walker was killed around noon Saturday. They have spoken to people who toured the home that morning and have received information from the few neighbors on cars parked near the model that day. Today, investigators watched Ms. Walker’s autopsy.

“They’re going to gather evidence as to what weapons were used, things like that,” Capt. Roland said.

He said police had yet to determine whether Ms. Walker was targeted or her death was a crime of opportunity.

“We don’t have any clues to the motive,” he said.

The medical examiner’s office had yet to determine whether Ms. Walker had been sexually assaulted. She was fully clothed when found. Police were also trying to determine whether any of Ms Walker’s personal items were missing and whether any property was taken from the model home.

[TexasStooge]

Limo driver gets big tip: a kidney

CHICAGO, Ill. (Reuters) - As tips go, Chicago limousine driver Abdul Faraj got a priceless one this week when one of his regular customers offered up a kidney, media reports said.

Faraj and Minnesota businessman Dave Baker underwent transplant surgeries at Chicago's Northwestern Memorial Hospital.

"He gave me part of his body. He saved my life," Faraj, a diabetes sufferer whose kidneys were failing despite a three-times-a-week dialysis regime, told area television stations.

Baker has used Faraj, a native of Lebanon, as his driver on trips to Chicago for several years. Making small talk months ago, Baker learned of Faraj's poor health and struggle to find a kidney donor with a matching blood type.

"At that time, he tells me, 'What's your blood type?' I tell him O-positive," Faraj said. "He said, 'I'm 0-positive. I'll give you one.'"

Baker is out of the hospital and expected to fully recover within weeks.

"This was an opportunity to stop, slow down, take a look around and try to help someone," Baker told local television.

[TexasStooge]

Tongues are big business in the meat trade

By Bob Burgdorfer

CHICAGO, Ill. (Reuters) - Beef tongues, a popular export item to Japan, tumbled from $5 a pound wholesale in the United States to about $1 when Tokyo banned all U.S. beef about two and a half years ago.

Bruce Berven, director of marketing for the California-based Harris Ranch Beef Company, hopes that the tongues it used to ship to Japan will go back to $5 now that Tokyo has agreed to buy U.S. beef again.

"On a per head of cattle basis, you are looking at $13 to $15 difference per head. That's huge economically in the beef business," said Berven.

The tongue incident is a good example of why foreign markets are important to U.S. meat companies.

Each year, U.S. beef, pork, and poultry companies export hundreds of millions of dollars worth of various meat items that most Americans never see on store shelves, but are considered a delicacy elsewhere.

Foreign countries buy steaks, pork chops, and chicken too but it is the stomachs, tongues, kidneys, livers, and chicken feet that U.S. meat companies are particularly anxious to export because if sold domestically, those products would bring much lower prices.

The beef tongues that Harris Ranch sells is a case in point. Japan and other countries banned U.S. beef products in late 2003 when the United States reported its first case of mad cow disease. It was shortly after that Berven saw tongue prices drop to $1 to $1.25 per lb.

KIDNEYS, LIVERS ARE BIG BUSINESS

While some of the mad cow bans have been lifted, others remain, like Japan's and South Korea's. It is hoped those two markets will open soon.

In the industry vernacular, the tongues and internal organs are called variety meats and produce significant revenue for meat companies.

The U.S. Meat Export Federation, which develops foreign markets for U.S. beef and pork, reports that in 2005 the United States exported nearly $447 million worth of beef variety meats and $355 million worth of pork variety meats.

For beef, that amount should increase when Japan, South Korea and a few other countries lift their bans.

In comparison, in 2003 before U.S. beef was banned around the world, U.S. exports of beef variety meats were valued at $712 million.

"Something like kidneys have very little value in the United States, but internationally it is three to eight times as much," said Lynn Heinze, USMEF spokesman.

FLIPPERS AND FEET HAVE MARKETS TOO

Pork and poultry companies export similar nontraditional meat products.

Hog stomachs, tongues, and jowls go to Japan; pigs feet, chicken feet, and wing tips (flippers) go to China; and turkey tails go to Africa and the South Pacific. Turkey tails are nugget-size portions at the end of the spine.

The pork exports have been going well and chicken exports are improving after slowing earlier this year because of the deadly bird flu overseas.

There are concerns that if the bird flu arrives here chicken exports could interrupted at least temporarily, said Toby Moore, spokesman for USA Poultry and Egg Export Council.

Dark meat leg quarters accounted for nearly 85 percent of the $2.1 billion worth of chicken the United States exported last year, with the remaining 15 percent including such things as wing tips.

That figure does not include chicken feet and paws. USDA reported $135 million of those were exported last year, up from $95 million in 2004.

Jay Simpson, global sales manager for commodity and trading at the No. 3 U.S. poultry company Perdue Farms, said his company's paws go to China and there is enough profit to make it worthwhile.

Without China, the paws would likely go to rendering companies to be processed into pet food or animal feed.

"It is my understanding they are used in sauces," said Simpson of Chinese market. "We have three or four plants that produce them. If we didn't harvest them they would go into rendering."

[TexasStooge]

Scot sold van Gogh paintings for a pittance

By Ian MacKenzie

EDINBURGH (Reuters) - When Scottish art dealer Alexander Reid returned from Paris with two paintings by Vincent van Gogh, his father berated him for bringing such "atrocities" home and sold them to a French dealer for five pounds ($9) each.

It did not matter that the paintings, a portrait of Reid and a still life of a basket of apples, were in fact gifts to the young Scot, who had lived for several months in Paris with Vincent and his brother, Theo, in Montmartre in 1886-87.

The two paintings and another van Gogh portrait of Reid are included in an exhibition of the Dutch painter's works that opened recently at Edinburgh's Dean Gallery, part of the National Galleries of Scotland. It runs to September 24.

The exhibition is based on British "pioneer collectors" who were among the first to appreciate Impressionist painters.

Frances Fowle, curator of the exhibition, said the anecdote about the sale of the two paintings by James Reid came in a book by Scottish student Alexander Hartrick, who met van Gogh in Paris in 1887.

Fowle said that in later life Alexander Reid, who became a major art dealer, bemoaned the sale of his two paintings and that "he hadn't realized what a great artist van Gogh would turn out to be and how marketable he would be."

Hartrick himself almost bought another still life with apples for two francs, but decided not to because he would have to carry it back to his hotel.

A century later, a van Gogh still life of 15 sunflowers was sold to Japanese insurance magnate Yasuo Goto for some 40 million dollars at auction in London in March 1987.

PAINTING STYLE

Van Gogh's two portraits of Alexander Reid in the exhibition, brought together for the first time, provide an insight into the evolution of his painting style.

The earlier portrait, with Alexander seated in an armchair, was painted shortly after he moved into the apartment.

"He still has that Realist style that he inherited from his time in the Netherlands ... so he had a much darker tone of pallet," said Fowle.

"But then you can see as soon as he got to Paris, his pallet lightened and I think the interest in neo-Impressionism is very clear in the second portrait."

Fowle also noted that Reid and van Gogh were remarkably similar physically.

"They were taken as twins and these portraits were originally catalogued as self-portraits (of van Gogh)."

The first portrait is now at the art museum of the University of Oklahoma in the United States, while the second is in Glasgow's Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum.

Fowle said Reid apparently acquired the still life of a basket of apples after setting out on a painting expedition with van Gogh.

"Van Gogh saw the apples in a market stall and decided he had to paint them. He didn't have any money on him, so Reid lent him the money or gave him the money, and he marched off back home with his apples.

"At the end of the day he was presented with this picture -- that's the story, anyway."

[TexasStooge]

Southwest Airline pilot arrested before take-off in Utah

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah (AP) - A Southwest Airlines co-pilot was taken off a plane and arrested today by the FBI on suspicion of being intoxicated just minutes before the plane was set to take off.

Forty-one-year-old Carl Fulton of Fort Worth, Texas, was given a breathalyzer test at the Salt Lake City International Airport where he was set to fly from. Results were not being released today.

Fulton was booked into the Salt Lake County Jail just after noon for investigation of operating a common carrier while under the influence of alcohol or drugs, which is a federal offense.

The Boeing 737 was scheduled to depart Salt Lake City International Airport with 123 passengers at 8 a-m traveling first to Phoenix and then to Albuquerque, New Mexico.

A spokeswoman for Southwest says Fulton is on administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation and has had no prior offenses.

[TexasStooge]

Returned balloon earns UNT student free burgers

DENTON, Texas (WFAA ABC 8) - A Krystal's advertising balloon that was stolen from the front of one of the chain's new locations on Loop 288 was returned Saturday night.

A student from the University of North Texas said she and some friends found it but were afraid to take it to the restaurant.

However, after she decided to bring the balloon to the restaurant, she received a reward of a sack-full of 12 hamburgers every week for a year.