Watercooler news from The Associated Press

Odd News

Iranian who inspired ‘The Terminal’ dies at Paris airport

PARIS (AP) — An Iranian man who lived for 18 years in Paris’ Charles de Gaulle Airport and whose saga loosely inspired the Steven Spielberg film “The Terminal” died Saturday in the airport that he long called home, officials said. Mehran Karimi Nasseri died after a heart attack in the airport’s Terminal 2F around midday, […]
1 year ago
This cover image released by William Morrow shows “Anon Pls.,” by the anonymous social media ce...

Deuxmoi, Instagram’s Gossip Girl, talks new novel ‘Anon Pls’

These days, people hungry for a status update on Kim Kardashian and Pete Davidson or Shawn Mendes’ Starbucks order are skipping old standbys like TMZ and People and instead turning to Deuxmoi. The Instagram account boasting 1.7 million followers is run by an anonymous woman living in New York who solicits and shares unconfirmed tips. […]
1 year ago

23-year-old defeats 2-term mayor in small Louisiana city

BATON ROUGE (AP) — A 23-year-old has defeated a two-term incumbent to become a small Louisiana city’s next mayor. Tyrin Truong, a Democrat, bested independent Mayor Wendy O’Quin Perrette, 47, in Bogalusa, a city of about 11,000 in southeastern Louisiana, WWL-TV reported Wednesday. “I’m honestly at a loss for words,” Truong said. “This campaign was […]
1 year ago

TSA: Handgun found inside raw chicken in luggage at airport

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Security officers at a South Florida airport have reported finding a handgun hidden inside a raw chicken packed in a traveler’s luggage. The Transportation Security Administration posted photos of the gun and poultry Monday on its official Instagram account. The weapon was recovered at the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. The […]
1 year ago
FILE - In this photo provided on Oct. 2018, by South Korea Presidential Blue House, South Korean Pr...

Dogs gifted by Kim Jong Un at center of South Korean row

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — A pair of dogs gifted by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in 2018 are now mired in a South Korean political row, with the country’s former president blaming his conservative successor for a lack of financial support as he gave the animals up. Moon Jae-in, a liberal who left […]
1 year ago
The Skansen Aquarium's entrance, part of the zoo on Djurgarden island, where a deadly snake escaped...

Escaped king cobra crawls back to Swedish terrarium

HELSINKI (AP) — A venomous 2.2-meter (7 foot) king cobra that escaped from its home in a Swedish zoo has returned back home by itself, bringing a happy ending to over a week-long disappearance saga. “Houdini, as we named him, has crawled back into his terrarium,” CEO Jonas Wahlstrom of the Skansen Aquarium told the […]
1 year ago
A train of the Rhaetian Railway (RHB) is on its way to set a world record for longest passenger tra...

Swiss claim record for world’s longest passenger train

GENEVA (AP) — A Swiss railway company claimed the record for the world’s longest passenger train Saturday with a trip on one of the most spectacular tracks through the Alps. The Rhaetian Railway company ran the 1.9-kilometer-long (1.2-mile-long) train composed of 100 coaches along the Albula/Bernina route from Preda to Berguen. The route was designated […]
1 year ago

Commissioner guilty of lying to enter detention facility

MIAMI (AP) — A South Florida village commissioner and former beauty queen has been sentenced to a year of probation and 50 hours of community service for pretending to be a paralegal to get into a federal immigration detention center to see her romantic partner. Julianna Clare Strout, 36, was sentenced Wednesday in Miami federal […]
1 year ago

Maine begins removing those naughty license plates

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — Maine is cleaning up its roadways by removing the flippin’ vulgarities from license plates. The state is enforcing new rules to eliminate f-bombs and other obscenities that appeared on vanity license plates after the state effectively eliminated its review process. The state began issuing recall letters this month, with a handful […]
1 year ago
A priest looks through a welding filter during a partial solar eclipse in Bucharest, Romania, Tuesd...

Partial solar eclipse takes a bite out of the sun

Much of Europe and parts of Africa and Asia saw the moon take a bite out of the sun during the second and last solar eclipse of the year. The partial eclipse took about four hours. At its peak, the eclipse covered more than 80% of the sun. A solar eclipse happens when the moon’s […]
1 year ago

Dogwalker discovers errant alligator roaming rural Idaho

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — It’s not uncommon for Idaho wildlife officials to be called for help when a moose, mountain lion, black bear or other wild animals wander into one of the state’s rural communities. But Idaho Fish and Game officials are asking the public for help with a particularly unusual find — a 3.5-foot […]
1 year ago
A  cream cheese board, left, and a butter board. Butter boards, the polarizing stepchild of charcut...

Gross or great? Fancy butter boards soar as shortage looms

NEW YORK (AP) — Legit gross or crazy delicious? Butter boards, the polarizing stepchild of charcuterie, have taken TikTok to new food-craze heights as some horrified safety and nutrition experts look on. And now, heading into the holidays, the boards are landing on tables as quick, inexpensive alternatives to the meat- and fancy cheese-laden OG […]
1 year ago
This is an artist's rendering of the dinosaur Podokesaurus holyokensis, which lived millions of yea...

‘Swift-footed lizard’ named Massachusetts state dinosaur

BOSTON (AP) — A “swift-footed lizard” that lived millions of years ago in what is now Massachusetts has been named the state’s official dinosaur under legislation signed into law Wednesday by Gov. Charlie Baker. Podokesaurus holyokensis received more than 60% of the roughly 35,000 votes cast in a social media campaign initiated early last year […]
1 year ago
This photo courtesy of the Museum of London Archaeology (MOLA), provided in October 2022, shows exc...

Genetic twist: Medieval plague may have molded our immunity

Our Medieval ancestors left us with a biological legacy: Genes that may have helped them survive the Black Death make us more susceptible to certain diseases today. It’s a prime example of the way germs shape us over time, scientists say in a new study published Wednesday in the journal Nature. “Our genome today is […]
1 year ago
FILE - This 2006 file photo provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows a fema...

Are you a mosquito magnet? It could be your smell

NEW YORK (AP) — A new study finds that some people really are “mosquito magnets” and it probably has to do with the way they smell. The researchers found that people who are most attractive to mosquitoes produce a lot of certain chemicals on their skin that are tied to smell. And bad news for […]
1 year ago

Pack of coyotes surrounds dog walker in Massachusetts

SWAMPSCOTT, Mass. (AP) — Coyotes surrounded a person walking their dog north of Boston over the weekend but were apparently scared off by police cruisers that arrived to help, authorities said. Police in Swampscott received a call around 9:30 p.m. Saturday from the dog walker, who said that they were surrounded and that the coyotes […]
1 year ago
A detail view of a sculpture of "Star Wars" character Han Solo frozen in carbonite and made entirel...

California baker creates life-sized Han Solo out of bread

BENICIA, Calif. (AP) — Han Solo may be a hunk. But “Pan Solo” is a hunk of bread. That’s what a bakery in the San Francisco Bay Area has dubbed its 6-foot (1.8 meter) bread sculpture of the “Star Wars” character as he appeared after being frozen in carbonite in “The Empire Strikes Back.” Hannalee […]
1 year ago

Germany: Man bites police dog, woman punches officer

BERLIN (AP) — Police in Germany said Friday they detained a man for resisting arrest and biting a service dog. Officers were called to a dispute between two 29-year-old men and a 35-year-old woman in the western town of Ginsheim-Gustavsburg shortly after midnight. The trio acted in an “extremely aggressive and uncooperative” fashion, police said […]
1 year ago
Twins Oladapo Taiwo, left, and Oladapo Kehinde, right, 21, pose for photographs during the annual t...

Nigerian city celebrates its many twins with annual festival

IGBO-ORA, Nigeria (AP) — Twins appear to be unusually abundant in Nigeria’s southwestern city of Igbo-Ora. Nearly every family here has twins or other multiple births, says local chief Jimoh Titiloye. For the past 12 years, the community has organized an annual festival to celebrate twins. This year’s event, held earlier this month, included more […]
1 year ago

Man charged with smuggling pythons in his pants at US border

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — A New York City man has been charged with smuggling three Burmese pythons in his pants at a U.S-Canadian border crossing. Calvin Bautista, 36, is accused of bringing the hidden snakes on a bus that crossed into northern New York on July 15, 2018. Importation of Burmese pythons is regulated by […]
2 years ago
Dwight Cleveland, a major collector of movie posters and lobby cards, poses for a portrait with a t...

Silent films to live on in movie theater lobby card project

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — “Missing Millions” is a 1922 silent film with a darkly prescient title — like the vast majority from that era, the movie all but vanished in the ensuing century, survived mostly by lobby cards. The cards, scarcely bigger than letter paper, promoted the cinematic romances, comedies and adventures of early Hollywood. […]
2 years ago

Guilty! Law school sends out erroneous admissions emails

BOSTON (AP) — A Massachusetts law school says it’s guilty of accidentally sending acceptance emails to thousands of former and current applicants. The Northeastern University School of Law in a statement Wednesday blamed a “technical error” for the glitch, saying the erroneous emails went to more than 200 people who applied for admission starting next […]
2 years ago
Parrots sit in cages waiting to be transported to the mainland in Pine Island, Fla., Tuesday, Oct. ...

Rescuers flock together to save 275 parrots stranded by Ian

PINE ISLAND, Fla. (AP) — Will Peratino and his partner Lauren Stepp would not leave their Pine Island compound, even as authorities pleaded with residents to abandon their homes because of damaged roads, including a collapsed bridge that prevented deliveries of food, gas and other life-sustaining supplies. But the couple could not leave without their […]
2 years ago
In this photo provided by The Great Pumpkin Farm, Emmett Andrusz, from left, Steve Andrusz and Scot...

Super squash: 2,554-pound pumpkin carves out new US record

CLARENCE, N.Y. (AP) — A 2,554-pound pumpkin grown in upstate New York has set a new U.S. record for the heaviest. State and national records fell over the weekend at the Great Pumpkin Farm in the Buffalo suburb of Clarence, when Scott Andrusz’s entry broke the previous national record of 2,528 pounds, The Buffalo News […]
2 years ago