The Odd Truth, May 6, 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.
Thong Of Freedom
SAN ANTONIO - San Antonio Park Police say they've received dozens of complaints about a man riding his bike in the park wearing only a black thong.
The 52-year-old man said he'll keep on pedaling because it's his legal right.
"We all claim to believe in the value of personal liberty, but we don't," Joseph Gottschalk said Monday. "No one person has the right to outrank the law and tell me what to wear."
By law, Gottschalk is allowed to wear the thong as long as it covers the appropriate parts. Park Police Capt. Raymond Castro said, "He's within his civil rights and legal rights to wear his thong."
Gottschalk added: "It doesn't take much clothing to take care of the requirement."
Danish Masons Fight For Drinking Rights
COPENHAGEN, Denmark - Despite a ban on alcohol in the workplace, masons at one company can have a cold beer while they're on break, a Danish labor court has ruled.
Drinking on the job is frowned upon in Denmark, a Scandinavian country of 5.3 million with a reputation for premium beer.
But after Mogens Jensen, owner of the MJ Mason Company in Broenderslev, 174 miles northwest of Copenhagen, issued an edict against having a drink during unpaid breaks, his workers complained.
The 40-person staff was upset that Jensen introduced the rule without input from them or their union. After attempts to negotiate a settlement, the General Workers' Union took the case to labor court, union spokesman Niels Joergen Tveden said Tuesday.
The court said Monday the ban doesn't apply to company workers while they're on the two daily unpaid breaks because they didn't approve it.
No one was available for comment at MJ, but the company spelled out its alcohol policy on its Web site: "It is not permitted for any employees to consume alcoholic beverages during working hours in which breaks are included."
Cat Inherits $700,000 Estate
LONDON - Tinker really is the cat that got the cream.
Thanks to his late owner, a wealthy widow, the former stray now lives in some splendor in his own house, valued at $560,000 and dines on fish bought from his $160,000 trust fund.
The will of Margaret Layne, 89, published in The Times newspaper on Tuesday, named Tinker as the beneficiary of a large chunk of her estate, including her house in Harrow, northwest London.
When he dies, the estate will pass to the trustees, Layne's former neighbors, Ann and Eugene Wheatley, who deliver Tinker's food and milk each day.
The good life is proving attractive to other cats.
In an interview with The Times, Wheatley, 75, said Tinker now shares the house with Lucy, "who was our pussy but decided to move there after she had a litter.
"And there's Stardust, a white cat who came to us from a friend who couldn't look after him any more but chose to go and live there," he said.
Wheatley said recent stock market falls had hit Tinker's trust fund but "there's a limit to what you can spend it on."
He said he had used some of the money to maintain the house "and Tinker is fond of coley (fish), so we bought him some."
Layne, who had no children, died last year, leaving an estate worth nearly $937,000.
Book Returned To Library 94 Years Late
VERNON, Conn. - The book Kelly Woodward recently returned to the Vernon Public Library was overdue — by about 94 years. It was due back on May 3, 1909.
At the 1909 rate of 2 cents per day, the late fine would have amounted to $685. But the library directors decided to waive the penalty.
Woodward said she found the 1904 edition of "100 Choice Selections No. 4" edited by Phineas Garrett in her parents' attic. The book is a collection of plays, prose, and poetry. She brought it back to the library in March.
Library spokeswoman Denise Stankovics said the library had no idea that the book was missing from the collection.
Though missing for nearly 94 years, the book won't return to the library shelves.
Instead, it's being kept in a display case in the adult department reading room with other library memorabilia and souvenirs from the 20th century.
"It's a pretty exciting find," Stankovics said. "We're happy the patron was conscientious enough to return the book, even after all these years."
No Superman In Sweden
STOCKHOLM, Sweden - It's a bird. It's a plane, but it's not Superman.
At least not in Sweden, where a couple who wanted to name their child after the comic book hero found the law harder to bend than the man of steel himself.
The tax authority, which oversees rules for names in the Scandinavian country of 8.9 million, nixed a request by Sara Lindenger and her live-in boyfriend, Johan Leisten, both 28, to name their child Staalman, Superman in Swedish.
"We wanted to call him David Rune Staalman Leisten," Lindenger told The Associated Press Tuesday. "It would be much worse to be called 'Fantomen' (or the Phantom) or Tarzan."
The authority said it wasn't suitable because it might "lead to discomfort for the person who uses it."
Lindenger and Leisten appealed the decision to the county administrative court in their hometown, Goteborg, 295 miles southwest of the capital, Stockholm, but it was denied. They haven't decided whether to appeal further.
A Car Wash Isn't For Horses
NORTH PLATTE, Neb. - Washing his horses at a car wash didn't seem like a bad idea to Jess Yager until it turned out to be illegal.
Yager took his four horses to the car wash Monday afternoon to clean them, saying it's hard to clip and trim horses when their hair is caked with mud.
But animal control officer John Pettit was ready to ticket Yager. Pettit told Yager it was against the law to wash his animals at the car wash and let him off with a warning.
Yager said that's news to him since he's been doing it for years. He said the horses love it and prefer the hot water of the car wash over the cold hose at home.
Yager took his animals home, after only two got the soapy treatment.
'Welcome To Palestine'
JERUSALEM - "Welcome to Palestine," said an Alitalia pilot as he landed in Tel Aviv on Tuesday, causing a stir among passengers and the airline's Israeli employees, a spokesman for the company said.
"We have not spoken to the captain," said the Israeli company spokesman, Orly Segal. "But if this did happen it will not go over quietly."
The incident happened on an overnight flight from Rome to Tel Aviv and touched a nerve on Memorial Day, when Israel pays homage to the 21,540 people killed in Israel's wars since 1860, when Jews started building neighborhoods outside the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem.
Israel and the Palestinians are reviewing a newly unveiled "road map" to peace that would lead to Palestinian statehood in three years.
Segal said that airline workers in Israel have sent a letter of complaint to the Italian national airline's headquarters in Rome and the Israeli Airports Authority has demanded an explanation.
An Alitalia spokesman in Rome said the airline had no immediate comment, but was looking into the situation.
"One thing is certain, this captain will not fly to Israel again," Segal said.