The Odd Truth, Aug. 2, 2003

The Odd Truth is a collection of strange but factual news stories from around the world compiled by CBSNews.com's Brian Bernbaum. A new collection of stories is published each weekday. On weekends, you can read a week's worth of The Odd Truth.

Wright Bros. Honored, In Butter

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Tributes to Orville and Wilbur Wright have been etched into quarters, printed on license plates and sculpted in bronze, wood and fiberglass. But if you thought artists were running out of ways to pay homage to the pioneers of flight, think again.

Life-sized sculptures of the Wrights are the focal points of this year's butter sculpture display at the Ohio State Fair. To celebrate the 100th anniversary of the brothers' first flight, the American Dairy Council unveiled the display Thursday.

The statues feature detailed mustaches, neckties and even facial expressions.

It took six Cincinnati-based artists 250 hours and about a ton of butter to make the sculptures, which will be displayed daily in a glass-walled showcase where the temperature is kept at 45 degrees.

"I think we're all pretty proud of it and it really fills out the showcase," said lead sculptor Bob Kling. "The Wright brothers really can't get enough praise."

The two figures stand about 6-foot-3 and each was made from about 250 pounds of butter, the equivalent of 1,000 sticks.

"In real life they were about 5-foot-10, so we made them a little superheroic," Kling said.

Dance 'Till You Drop

CLEVELAND - A dance party that ended yesterday in Cleveland may make the Guinness Book of World Records.

The party at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame began at 5:10 Tuesday morning and ended this morning after going non-stop for 52 hours and three minutes.

Organizers are hoping it will be certified as the world's longest dance party, breaking the previous record of 50 hours.

Dancers got ten-minute breaks every hour, but say they were getting a little slaphappy going into the second day.

Forty-one dancers went the full time. The group's original goal was 81 hours in honor of the 81st anniversary of their sponsor, St. Joseph's Aspirin.

$5,000 In Pocket Change Stolen

ERIE, Pa. - Everyone loses pocket change from time to time, but a northwestern Pennsylvania man lost quite a chunk - $5,000 worth - but only for a couple of days.

Gerard McCord called police on Monday, reporting that burglars had taken a 30-year collection of change from his North East home, about 120 miles north of Pittsburgh.

McCord, 47, said the burglars apparently entered his house through an unlocked back door and made off with the $5,000 in pocket change he had been saving since he was 17.

McCord, however, said he had an idea who might have made off with the two containers of coins. He said he called his suspects - whom he identified only as "kids" - and the money was returned Wednesday.

It was unclear whether the alleged thieves would face charges.

When Pizza Isn't Pizza

WASHINGTON - What do you call a pizza without tomato sauce, a bread crust or cheese?

Under new Agriculture Department rules, you call it a pizza.

USDA's new definition of frozen pizza allows food processors to call their products pizza without any of those ingredients. The rule also lets companies cut the amount of raw meat on a frozen meat pizza from 15 percent to three percent.

USDA spokesman Steven Cohen says the change brings frozen pizza in line with fresh pizza, which USDA does not directly regulate. He says makers of frozen pizza complained that makers of fresh pizza had a cost advantage because they didn't have to comply with the rules.

He also says there'll be more room for other toppings under the new rule.

Cohen says the new rule is being phased in - and for three years, frozen pizza will have to list ingredients by percentage.

As for whether consumers would recognize a cheese-less, sauce-less, crust-less pizza as a pizza, Cohen says he thinks "consumers will know what they are eating."

Baby Accompanies Armed Robber

SYDNEY, Australia - An 8-month-old baby in Australia got an early taste of playing cops and robbers when his father staged a hold-up and took him along for the ride, police said Friday.

A masked, knife-wielding man robbed a fast food restaurant and escaped with his son in the front seat of a stolen getaway car, said Senior Constable Ralph Stevenson in Perth, the capital of Western Australia state.

He then dumped the car and walked with the child to a nearby bar where he started drinking, Stevenson said.

Stevenson said the man appeared to be on drugs, and tried to swallow some unidentified pills after the bar staff called police.

Police took the man, whose identity was not released, to the Royal Perth Hospital and looked after the baby until they found his mother.

Stevenson said the child was safe and well. Police said they likely would charge the man later Friday with armed robbery and car theft.

Whites Offered Cash To Attend Black Church

SHREVEPORT, La. - Hoping to expand the diversity of his congregation, a Baptist bishop is offering white people money to attend his sermons.

Bishop Fred Caldwell said he will pay $5 per hour for Sunday services at Greenwood Acres Full Gospel Baptist Church and $10 an hour for the Thursday service. The idea came to him during his sermon Sunday.

"Our churches are too segregated, and the Lord never intended for that to happen. It's time for something radical," he said.

Since a story aired on television news Monday, Caldwell said he has had several positive responses from the white community and expects to put out extra chairs this Sunday. One man who called didn't want the money; he just appreciated the invitation.

Criss Williams, one of the congregation's few white members, said she doesn't have a problem with the payout.

"I don't see it as any different than a lot of the churches that have different social functions to attract visitors," she said. "Bishop just kind of cut to the chase and went to the money."

Evangelization strategies in many churches often have "bordered on bribery," said professor Peter Huff, chairman of the religion department at Centenary College in Shreveport. In mission fields, it is common for people to seek out religious agencies to get food or medical assistance, he said. But their faith lasts only as long as the help.

To get their money, white visitors will have to register when they attend. Caldwell will pay them from his pocket and enlist the help of the congregation if needed.

"I just want the kingdom of God to look like it's supposed to," he said. "There ain't going to be ghettoes in heaven."

Wingin' It

CALAIS, France - An Austrian who specializes in high-risk parachute jumps flew across the English Channel on Thursday with a sleek, aerodynamic carbon fiber wing.

A plane dropped Felix Baumgartner into the sky at an altitude of more than 30,000 feet, letting gravity and the wind shoot the wing through the air and over the Channel.
Baumgartner made the 21-mile trip in 14 minutes reaching up to 217 mph, said spokeswoman Sarah Christofi.

"It's very cold up there," the 34-year-old skydiver said after landing at Cap Blanc-Nez, near the Channel port of Calais. "I still can feel nothing."

Baumgartner was fitted with a parachute as he rode the metallic blue wing, which has a span of nearly 6 feet and is similar to a hanglider, but with a much more modern design.

Clouds obscured Baumgartner's vision, forcing him to follow two lead planes as he glided through the sky in an aerodynamic suit equipped with cameras and monitoring equipment.

Baumgartner was the first person to parachute from Malaysia's Petronas Towers - the world's tallest building. The extreme sports fanatic said he was following the tradition of historic flight.

"It's exactly 100 years ago that the Wright Brothers were doing the first flight with a plane," he said. "And now I'm here, with my little wing."

Suspicious, Vibrating Package

LILBURN, Ga. - A post office and surrounding area were evacuated after a mail carrier came across a suspicious, vibrating package. X-rays soon revealed the box to be X-rated.

U.S. Postal Service spokesman Michael Miles said the package aroused suspicion from a carrier and his supervisor, who took the priority-listed mail into the parking lot and called police.

The Gwinnett County bomb squad, U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and the Gwinnett County Fire Department evacuated the building and the parking lot Wednesday and shut down a nearby street.

A high-tech robot was sent in to pick up the package and X-ray it. The X-ray showed wires and objects, Miles said. When it was opened, authorities found adult toys, including a vibrator and massage oil.

The resident to whom the package was addressed will be notified of what happened, but will not be prosecuted.

"Since these are all legal items, we won't be doing any follow-up investigation," police spokesman Cpl. Dan Huggins said.

Canine Conflict

LONDON - A judge was forced to forced to bow out of a dangerous dog case Thursday after learning his own pet mongrel was appearing for the defense.
Justice Barrington Black had been scheduled to preside at the trial of Geraldine Green, 53, whose dog allegedly bit a jogger. She was charged with having a dog "dangerously out of control."

Court officials said Thursday that the judge learned that his dog Vinnie had been filmed frolicking on Hampstead Heath in north London with the defendant's dog, Zak, and that the video would be offered in evidence.

Black told Harrow Crown Court in west London that he had to declare a "four-footed interest" and asked for the case to be heard by another judge.

Green was subsequently found innocent by a jury.

'Living Dead' Protest In India

LUCKNOW, India - Two dozen people who call themselves "the Living Dead" held a Hindu last rites ceremony outside a state assembly this week to protest their plight: being wrongly declared dead and losing their property to conniving relatives and officials.

They said tens of thousands more share their problem in India's most populous state, Uttar Pradesh.

"My son produced a fake death certificate to revenue officials and grabbed my 12 acres of property. The government still refuses to recognize me as alive," said Rashida Bibi, 62. She was declared dead in 1993.

"We have knocked on doors of government officials and police. No one is ready to recognize us as living persons because revenue records declare us dead," said Lal Bihari, president of the Association of The Living Dead.

"We wanted to tell the world that we are alive," Bihari said during the protest Wednesday.

Bihari's uncle reported him dead 18 years ago. Despite many public protests, he's been unable to reverse the declaration. He ran in two elections against Indian prime ministers - and appeared on the ballot - but says he still hasn't been able to get his property back.

There are 35,000 people in Uttar Pradesh state who been falsely declared dead, he said.

Some protesters shaved their heads. Others conducted rites that Hindus perform after a relative has been dead for 13 days.

Most "Living Dead" cases involve family members who pay corrupt revenue officials to record the false death certificates, said the state's revenue minister, Ghanshyam Shukla.

Bare-Breasted Bogey

CALEDONIA, Wis. - Police in Caledonia, Wisconsin, are investigating reports of a topless golf outing. A Milwaukee TV station has video of strippers and duffers at the South Hills Country Club. Police say club president Tom Jensen has told them that he knew the strippers might take off their clothes for a tip. The topless golf outing was sponsored by the Heart Breakers strip club last month. The video shows the strippers letting male golfers drink shots of booze from between their bare breasts for money. Authorities say the golf club could face fines for liquor violations - or even loose its liquor license.

Spittle Bug Leaps Over Flea As World's Best Jumper

NEW YORK - A common farm pest appears to have leapfrogged over the flea to claim the unofficial title as the world's best jumper.

British researchers say experiments show the spittle bug - a tiny, green insect that sucks the juice from alfalfa and clover - can leap more than 2 feet in the air.

That's more than twice as high as the flea, and equivalent to a man jumping over the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, scientists said.

The findings appear in Thursday's issue of the journal Nature.

Malcolm Burrows, a zoologist at the University of Cambridge and the study's lead researcher, said the finding is remarkable because the 6-millimeter-long spittle bug - about the size of a pencil eraser - is bigger and heavier than the bloodsucking flea, yet still able to outjump its tiny rival by accelerating faster.

The spittle bug reaches its heights by unleashing the large amount of stored energy in its muscular hind legs.

During takeoff, the spittle bug accelerates at more than 400 times the force of gravity, versus 135 times for a flea.

In an American experiment carried out in 1910, a flea jumped nearly 8 inches in the air and performed a long jump of 13 inches.

Some insect experts who did not participate in the study said the British results reflect the evolutionary lesson that all human athletes eventually must learn.

"There's always someone out there who's bigger, faster, meaner, tougher and can do things better," said Iowa State entomologist Ken Holscher. "Maybe the flea has been replaced by something a little bit better."

7,000 Onions Stolen

CRYSTAL, N.D. - It's enough to make Lorraine Martinson weep.

More than 7,000 onions were picked from her field and pocketed by thieves, Pembina County Sheriff Wayne Samdahl said.

Seven rows of onions, worth about $4,000, were taken from the field where Martinson grows a variety of vegetables.

The theft apparently happened over the weekend. Martinson discovered it Monday, when she was picking peas.

"I looked down and there's no onions," she said. "I was like, 'Where's my onions?"'

Authorities took pictures of footprints and tire prints.

Samdahl said the thieves must have spent considerable time in the field, which has about 1,000 onions for each of the seven rows. He believes more than one person was involved.

Martinson says onions are her major source of income in the summer.

"This is what I make my pickup payment and taxes with," she said.

Martinson is offering a $500 award for tips that lead to an arrest in the case.

Name Changed From Karin To GoVeg.com, No Kidding

CHICAGO - She knew her new name might finally stick when she got a phone message recently: "Hi, GoVeg.com. This is your mother. Please call me."

It might sound more than a little odd - but it's true. A young animal rights activist from Indiana once known as Karin Robertson has legally changed her name to that of a Web site run by her employer, the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

It's not a first name or a last name - just one name. And don't call her "Veg" or "Dot," as some have tried to do.

"I like the whole name together," says the 23-year-old woman who is a youth educator for PETA and living in Norfolk, Virginia, where the organization is based.

She says she made the switch to get people talking about vegetarianism and animal rights wherever she pulls out her new driver's license - at the airport, the bank or anyplace else.

People usually laugh - and so does she.

"Every time I go to the bank, the tellers will report back about vegetarian food they've tried," she says, gleefully.

Now those in the agriculture field are rolling their eyes over GoVeg.com's name change.

"It sounds like she needs to get a life," says Kara Flynn, a spokeswoman for the National Pork Producers Council, a lobbying group in Washington. "If she actually went on a farm and saw what was happening there, she might be pleasantly surprised."

Robbing The Coffin

CROWLEY, La. - A Crowley woman is out on bond today after she was booked with felony theft after she allegedly did more than pay her respects to a deceased person during a funeral wake. Police say she walked away with a keepsake.

Crowley Police Captain Richard Sammartino says 44-year-old Susan M. Duhon was arrested for theft of a ring she allegedly took from the hand of a deceased relative while visiting her coffin.

Sammartino says they suspected Duhon knew the deceased because she signed the visitor's book.

Duhon was at Geesey-Ferguson Funeral Home when she allegedly took a wedding ring valued at $500.

Sammartino says witnesses noticed her odd behavior. Police went to her home to interview her and arrested her when they found the ring. She posted a $10,000 bond from Acadia Parish jail.

As of today, Duhon had not been charged by the district attorney.

Million Dollar Nickel

BALTIMORE - A million-dollar mystery was solved early Wednesday with experts certifying that a nickel that had been missing for decades is the fifth 1913 Liberty Head nickel.

Relatives of the late George Walton, a North Carolina coin dealer, took the coin to the experts at the American Numismatic Association convention that opened Wednesday. The relatives did not want to be identified.

The family had put the coin away after Walton's death because they didn't believe it was genuine, said Paul Montgomery, president of Bowers and Merena Galleries, a Louisiana-based coin dealer and auction house.

They decided to bring it out for inspection after learning that Montgomery had offered a $1 million reward for the coin and $10,000 just to be the first to see it.

The association brought the six experts together late Tuesday. After comparing the coin to four documented coins, they declared the coin authentic early Wednesday.

The family had no immediate plans to take Montgomery up on his offer of $1 million for the coin.

The Liberty Head Nickel was replaced by the Indian or Buffalo Nickel after 1912, Montgomery said. But five Liberty nickels with 1913 dates were minted illegally by Mint official Samuel K. Brown.

The reward amount was based on the auction of a 1913 nickel for $1.4 million in 1996. It was the first coin to sell for more than $1 million.

Man's Best Friend?

MOSCOW - Medics trying to reach a man suffering from a high blood pressure attack were blocked by his fierce and vigilant guard dog and the owner died, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported Wednesday.

The report said the incident took place in the Ural Mountains city of Chelyabinsk, where an emergency medical crew tried to treat the 54-year-old man.

"All attempts by the medics to get close to the dying man were firmly blocked by his four-legged friend," the report said.

Police were called to the scene and shot the dog, but the owner died before he could be attended to by doctors, according to ITAR-Tass.

Wasting Away Again In Burritoville

NORTH PLATTE, Neb. - A man accused of violating his work release by having alcohol on his breath says it was all in the burritos.

The judge wants to see the recipe.

Attorney Russ Jones said Monday his client, William Dolge, 45, had burrito meat soaked in beer, which resulted in his testing positive for a low amount of alcohol about two weeks ago when he returned to jail from his job.

Lincoln County Attorney Jeff Meyer said he suspected Dolge washed the burritos down with something more than water.

District Judge John Murphy told Jones to bring the recipe - and a sample if he can - to the next hearing in the case on Aug. 6.

Dolge was granted work release while serving 364 days in jail for driving with a suspended license.

Talk To Your Koala About Teenage Pregnancy

SYDNEY, Australia - Wildlife officers plan to implant contraceptive devices in thousands of female koalas at a park that is overpopulated with the animals, who are eating away the tree canopy, a report said Wednesday.

The koalas will have a small plastic tube inserted under their skin. The device will slowly release hormones similar to those found in the human contraceptive pill, said Sally Troy, the research head of Parks Victoria, the agency that manages the affected Mount Eccles National Park in Victoria state.

It is the first time such a scheme has been carried out on a large scale, she said.

"There's up to 10,000 koalas in the park and another couple of thousand koalas around (the) park, so they are continuing to increase and we know that more than 70 percent of the trees at Mount Eccles have got less than half of their canopy already," Troy was cited as saying by Australian Broadcasting Corp.'s Web site.

No other details of the program were included in the report. Attempts to confirm it with Parks Victoria were unsuccessful because their offices had closed for the day.

The park is about 190 miles west of Melbourne.

Ravioli Ransom In 'Fat Boy' Kidnapping

DENNIS, Mass. - Four-hundred pounds of gorgonzola ravioli in unmarked bags.

That's supposedly the ransom demand from the kidnappers of "Fat Boy," a seven-foot-high fiberglass chef statue that was swiped from in front of an Italian restaurant on Cape Cod.

The ransom demand was left on the answering machine at "Spaghetti Eddies." The caller said "I've got your chef" in what owner Robert Swanson described as a "Mafia-like voice."

Swanson said the caller told the restaurant that if it wanted its mascot back, it better get the gorgonzola ravioli ready. Details of the exchange would come in a later phone call.

Swanson, however, doubts the call came from the real kidnappers of Fat Boy. Police are skeptical, too.

The fiberglass mascot was taken sometime early Saturday.

Barnyard Gambling

TORONTO - It's a version of roulette - but played with cow pies. Organizers are calling their game "Moolette." At lunchtime in Toronto Thursday a cow will wander on a giant roulette board. If Bessie makes a deposit on your number, you win. The event is being staged by Dunlop Tires and proceeds will be donated to the Ontario 4-H Foundation. The stunt will also raise awareness for Canada's beleaguered beef industry. Organizers hope to play at least three to four games of Moolette. But just how many will be up to the cow.

Patient Sues Doc After Three Hour Wait

LAS VEGAS - A Las Vegas doctor has learned the hard way that time is money.

A man got so fed up waiting three hours to see him that he sued for $5,000. A small claims court awarded him $250.

The man said he wanted to teach a lesson about treating patients with respect.

The doctor says he's appalled by the ruling and will appeal.

The doctor says he overbooked to get the man in before he left on vacation. But he fell behind shuttling between his four offices - and can't be faulted because another patient took longer than expected.

The head of the Nevada State Medical Association says the case can be a warning to doctors about patients getting frustrated with long waits.

Bobblehead Beat

LOWELL, Mass. - A homegrown literary icon will be remembered next month with an honor usually reserved for sports figures: a bobblehead doll.

The first 1,000 fans at the Aug. 21 game between the Lowell Spinners and Williamsport Crosscutters of the Class A New York-Penn League will receive bobbing likenesses of Jack Kerouac.

The giveaway, in partnership with the English department at the University of Massachusetts at Lowell, is part of "Jack Kerouac Night" at LeLacheur Park.

The eight-inch doll features Kerouac holding a pen and notebook and standing on a copy of "On The Road," his best-known work.

"It's unusual, to say the least, to have a sports team get involved with a literary figure," said Hilary Holladay, director of the Kerouac Conference on Beat Literature.

Before he was a writer, Kerouac was a baseball fan and athlete. He excelled in football and track at Lowell High School, spent the winter of 1942 as a sportswriter for The Sun of Lowell, and played football at Columbia.

Redefining Attorney-Client Privilege

SEATTLE - Attorney Theresa Olson is in trouble for giving a client more than just legal advice. She was caught having sex with her client in a Seattle jail. Now, the public defender has agreed not to practice law for a year. As part of a disciplinary deal with the state Bar Association, Olson will undergo a mental exam and spend another year on probation. The Washington state Supreme Court still must approve the sanctions. A jail guard caught Olson in a sex act with prisoner Sebastian Burns. He's awaiting trail on murder charges.

Roman 'Asses' Milk' Unearthed In London

LONDON - It smells like yoghurt that's past its freshness date - and at 1,800 years old or so, that's a fair guess.

But no one is quite sure about the composition or the use of the white paste found inside a small Roman canister opened at the Museum of London on Monday.

The box was found a week earlier on the south bank of the Thames during an archaeological dig at the site of a previously unknown Romano-Celtic temple complex. Earlier this year, a fragmentary inscription to the god Mars Camulus was found at the site.

The paste, bearing ancient fingerprint marks, is now being analyzed.

Liz Barham, a conservator at the museum, found the canister easy to open but museum staff and journalists found the smell harder to take.

"Asses' milk?" suggested Francis Grew, the curator of archaeology at the Museum of London. "Asses' yoghurt," said Hedley Swaine, keeper of early London archaeology.

Barham described the odor as "a somewhat sulfurous smell, highly characteristic of waterlogged deposits from that site. And cheesy."

The canister is now on display at the museum.

Rude Awakening

OSLO, Norway - Trying to sleep through a storm wasn't easy for a Norwegian couple - their cast-iron double bed took a direct hit from a lightning bolt that lit up the bedroom.

Idar Roenningen and companion Charlotte Amundsen, both 28, were kept awake by thunder late Friday night at their country home outside Porsgrunn, 60 miles southwest of the capital, Oslo. So, Roenningen unplugged some appliances.

Shortly after returning to bed, the room flared "like 10 welder's torches" and then everything went dark, Roenningen said.

Smoke from charred electrical sockets traced through the room.

Pillows apparently insulated the couple from the iron bed frame. They were not injured, but they chose to spend the rest of the night on the sofa.

"I think I'm more afraid of lightning now than I'll ever be," Roenningen told The Associated Press.

Their 5-year-old son, Jonathan, normally liked to sneak into bed with the couple, but he was away for a holiday break.

Potential Juror Becomes Real Prisoner

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich.- A Michigan man's comments on a jury questionnaire have landed him in prison.

Officials say the Traverse City man wrote on the form he has contempt for the county court's - quote - "twisted lying and extremely warped way." He also thanked the court for wasting his time.

The judge found the man in contempt of court after he refused to fill out a revised form and for saying he couldn't afford to pay his $200 fine.

The man must stay behind bars until he can find the money for the fine.

Study Confirms: Kansas Is Flatter Than A Pancake

LAWRENCE, Kan. - Scientists have confirmed what many cross-country motorists long have suspected: Kansas is flatter than a pancake.

A study published recently in the tongue-in-cheek Annals of Improbable Research compares the geography of Kansas to that of a griddle cake purchased at International House of Pancakes.

"Simply put, our results show that Kansas is considerably flatter than a pancake," wrote the researchers from Southwest Texas State University and Arizona State University.

Blame Brandon Vogt, a doctoral student at Arizona State University, for the topic. Three researchers were eating breakfast when the talk turned to how flat their pancakes really were.

Vogt suggested comparing the pancake to Kansas. While a student at the University of Colorado in Boulder, Vogt made frequent trips across the state on Interstate 70 to visit friends in Columbia, Mo.

"It's flatness — there's nothing to see, nowhere to stop," Vogt said.

The researchers used a confocal laser microscope to map the terrain of a flapjack. And then, they compared that data to elevation data for Kansas from the U.S. Geological Survey.

The researchers discovered the pancake is much bumpier than it first appears.

Not everyone is buying into the research.

"My guess is you could put Colorado in there, the way they're calculating it, and it would be flatter than a pancake," said Lee Allison, director of the Kansas Geological Survey. "I think this is part of a vast breakfast food conspiracy to denigrate Kansas. It's a cheap shot."

The Answer Is Blowin' In The Vents

MINNEAPOLIS - A former superintendent at the Metrodome admits he tried to help the Minnesota Twins by adjusting the ventilation system during the late innings of close games - including one during the 1991 World Series against the Atlanta Braves - in an attempt to get baseballs to carry farther.

"If they were down two runs and you're still hoping for them to have the advantage, you'd want to be blowing all the air out and up as much as you can," Dick Ericson told the Minneapolis Star Tribune for Sunday's editions. "I don't feel guilty. ... It's your home-field advantage. Every stadium has got one."

Ericson, who worked at the Metrodome from the time the Twins began play there in 1982 until he retired in 1995, said he would turn on fans behind home plate and adjust the air conditioning. The Twins won the World Series in 1987 and 1991.

Ericson said the fans were blowing out when Kirby Puckett hit his dramatic 11th-inning, game-ending home run in Game 6 of the 1991 series against the Atlanta Braves, but he said the ball was hit hard enough to go out without help from the ventilation system.

Neither officials for the Twins nor for the Metropolitans Sports Facilities Commission, which operates the Metrodome, asked him to manipulate the ventilation, Ericson said.

Officials for the Twins and the commission said they have no knowledge of the air flow in the stadium being manipulated and have doubts about whether it actually happened.

"It's kind of romantic to speculate about it," said Matt Hoy, vice president of operations for the Twins. "But in a practical sense, I don't know if it holds a lot of water."