111909: Water Cooler News
Water Cooler News – November 19/09
It’s time for another edition of the Water Cooler News. Aimed at making sure you’re not left speechless at the daily gathering around the water cooler. There’s nothing worse than having nothing to talk about. With that in mind, in this edition of the Water Cooler News, you will find the usual collection of historical tidbits and birthdays for this date.
In the line of off-beat news there you will find…
- Love Of Dolls Sends Woman To Jail
- Cow Takes A Dip in Neighbor’s Pool
- Mail Carrier Takes A Drunk Noodle Break
Daily Mindbender Question
10% of Americans have never stepped foot here. Where is it?
Answer at end of post.
Off-Beat News
“Love Of Dolls Sends Woman To Jail”
58 year old Margot Strawn of Laguna Hills, California will spend the next four years in prison for stealing over half a million dollars from a trust fund so she could buy dolls for her collection. According to court documents, Strawn was working as an accountant when she was hired to manage a family’s trust fund in 2001. Over the next five-and-a-half years, she wrote checks to herself from the account to help fund her doll collection.
“Cow Takes A Dip in Neighbor’s Pool”
Kathy Wydareny of Anderson, South Carolina was stunned to discover a 650-pound cow in her pool Monday night. After hearing a huge splash in her back yard, she went outside to find the animal had fallen into the pool. It turns out the cow belonged to her neighbor. Wydareny called 9-1-1 and five rescue workers responded to help remove the bovine bather from the pool.
“Mail Carrier Takes A Drunk Noodle Break”
A postal worker in Marion, Iowa is in hot water after she was found drunk in someone’s home while she was supposed to be delivering the mail. Police charged the 46 year old with public intoxication after they found her drunk on the kitchen floor of a 95-year-old woman’s house eating noodles she’d found in the refrigerator. Authorities say the woman managed to get into the home because the front door was unlocked. She was in her uniform and had her mail bag with her as well. The worker, who’s been with the post office for 17 years, was placed on unpaid leave.
Historical Tidbits
Today is…
Cold War Formally Ended – 1990
First Automatic Toll Collection Machine Anniversary – 1954
Have A Bad Day Day – For those who are filled with repulsion at being told endlessly to “have a nice day”, this day is a brief respite.
Notable Birthdays…
Alan Young, 90, actor (“Mr. Ed)
Larry King, 76, talk show host
Dick Cavett, 73 TV host
Ted Turner, 71, media mogul
Dan Haggerty, 68, actor (“Grizzly Adams”)
Calvin Klein, 67, designer
Ann Curry, 53, journalist (“Today)
Meg Ryan, 48, actress
Jodie Foster, 47, actress
Terry Farrell 46/actress, TV’s Becker
Music History
1990 – The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences took away Milli Vanilli’s Best New Artist Grammy after it was revealed the two group members, Rob Pilatus and Fabrice Morvan, did not actually sing on the album, Girl You Know It’s True.
1979 – Chuck Berry was released from Lompoc Prison in California after serving a sentence for income tax evasion.
1971 – B.B King marked his 25th year in show business by kicking off a European tour in London.
1968 – The Supremes performed at the Royal Variety Show in London. Queen Elizabeth was in attendance.
1955 – Carl Perkins recorded “Blue Suede Shoes” at Sun Studios in Memphis.
1954 – Sammy Davis Jr. was involved in a serious auto accident in San Bernardino, California. Three days later, Davis lost the ability see with his left eye.
General History
1620 – The Pilgrims landed in Massachusetts. All 102 of them had been cooped up aboard the Mayflower for two months.
1863 – Abraham Lincoln gave the famous Gettysburg Address, at a cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. It wasn’t famous at the time, though — the Chicago Times described the three-minute speech as, quote, “flat, silly and dishwatery.”
1895 – Inventor Frederick Blaisdell patented his new invention, the pencil.
1959 – The auto industry’s most spectacular flop, the Edsel, drove off to that big junkyard in the sky, as the Ford Motor Company announced it was suspending production of the car after just 26 months.
2001 – Barry Bonds* became the first player to win four of Major League Baseball’s Most Valuable Player awards.
Daily Mindbender Answer
10% of Americans have never stepped foot on a “bathroom scale”.
Yours in Water Cooler News!
Dr. Rus
If you missed the Gettysburg meeting, you can find Lincoln’s PowerPoint at:
http://notionscapital.wordpress.com/2009/11/19/gettysburg-address-november-19-1863/