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Family

North Carolina, US: Mother, Daughter Get Big Lottery Jackpot 3 Times

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© Getty Images
A mother and daughter in the Carolinas have three big lottery wins in the last 20 years between them.

The Charlotte Observer reports that Kimberly McCauley won $100,000 this month playing a new instant-scratch off game 10X the Money.

The North Carolina Education Lottery says that in 2007, McCauley's mother, Amy McCauley, who's from Fort Mill, S.C., won more than $160,000 in the Carolina Cash 5 game. But the family's big win came in 1991, when Amy McCauley won $15.5 million in the New York Lotto. She also snagged two $1,000 prizes playing the North Carolina lottery's $130 Million Blockbuster game in 2009.

Kimberly McCauley says she thought her mother had all the lottery luck, so she's overwhelmed with the $100,000 win.

Document

US: Wisconsin Professor Wins 2011 Bad Writing Contest

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© iPhotostock
A sentence in which tiny birds and the English language are both slaughtered took top honors Monday in an annual bad writing contest.

Sue Fondrie of Oshkosh, Wis., won the 2011 Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest for her sentence comparing forgotten memories to dead sparrows, said San Jose State University Prof. Scott Rice. The contestant asks writers to submit the worst possible opening sentences to imaginary novels.

Fondrie wrote: "Cheryl's mind turned like the vanes of a wind-powered turbine, chopping her sparrow-like thoughts into bloody pieces that fell onto a growing pile of forgotten memories."

The University of Wisconsin professor's 26-word sentence is the shortest grand prize winner in the contest's 29-year history, Rice said.

Contest judges liked that Fondrie's entry reminded them of the 1960s hit song "The Windmills of Your Mind," which Rice described as an image that "made no more sense then than it does now."

Smiley

Washington, US: Police Find Stolen Truck Near Police Station

Steal a pickup truck in Oregon. Check. Drive it across the border into Washington. Check. Park it across the street from the police department. Oops.

College Place, Wash., Police Chief Dennis Lepiane says police got word Thursday that a pickup stolen in Umatilla (yoo-muh-TIHL'-ah) County, Ore., might be headed for Washington.

It was only about half an hour later when one of his officers saw a vehicle matching the description. It was parked across the street from City Hall, home of the Police Department.

According to the Walla Walla Union-Bulletin, officers confirmed it was the right vehicle, then confronted an 18-year-old woman and a 15-year-old boy. They fled through an apartment complex but were both arrested.

The woman was taken to jail and the younger teen was placed in juvenile detention.

Mr. Potato

Well, I'll be a monkey's uncle! Chinese villagers mistake atrophied ape for alien

Monkey not alien
Visitor from another world: A Chinese housewife caught this atrophied ape stealing cucumbers from her flat - and called the police

This ape made a monkey of Chinese villagers who feared it was a visitor from another world.

Locals panicked when Mao Xiping, a housewife from the village of Gezhai, in Henan province, central China, found the scraggy simian stealing cucumbers from her flat.

She thought it was a harmless rabbit, until she noticed it had an 'alien face' and her neighbours agreed it was like nothing they had ever seen before.

An alarmed Mrs Mao rang police for help. But officers thought she was monkeying around until she trapped the animal and took it to the police station.

Star

Forget planking -- who's up for owling?

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Don't try this at home: Some extreme owling from the Know Your Meme blog.

The sad truth for ridiculous Web memes is that they have remarkably poor shelf lives. So, farewell planking.

Hello, owling.

Deciding that striking a "light as a feather, stiff as a board" pose in public, photographing it and posting it on the Web is old news, some Internet denizens have moved on.

Now, it's all about squatting, arms pressed toward the ground and eyes locked in a wise, faraway gaze. You know ... like an owl.

Mr. Potato

Phone-hack backlash BBC in embarrassing headline gaffes

Auntie can't get mouth around clock

Updated: We at Vulture Central know only too well that it has been an extremely busy week in the world of phone-hacking for reporters across the land, but that's surely no excuse for this worrisome piece of sloppy copy from none other than Auntie this morning.
hacking gaff
© BBC

The BBC news magazine has thankfully now corrected its "Phone-hacking: The other news you might OF missed" headline.

But what went wrong? Has the meeja's fixation on Murdoch's meeja empire led to a drop in grammatical standards over at the Beeb. Surely knot?
Speaking Cock
© BBCAuntie can't get mouth around clock
This cock-up arrived just minutes after the first...

Smiley

Poll: Only 52% of Americans approve of God's performance

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© Unknown
Dissatisfaction and anger with the federal government is nothing new, but now even Almighty God is having a tough time getting support from the public.

A recently released survey (PDF) by Public Policy Polling (PPP) found that only 52 percent of American voters approve of God's performance, while nine percent disapprove and 40 percent are just not sure.

Among "very liberal" respondents, 19 percent disapproved. Only four percent of "very conservative" voters had a problem with the deity.

At 71 percent, God got His highest marks for creating the universe. His handling of animals was approved by 56 percent, and 50 percent even approved of His handling of natural disasters.

Wine

Switzerland: Happy Hour in Court as Swiss Judges Test Cocktails

It's a tough job, but someone's got to do it.

Swiss daily Tages-Anzeiger reports that judges at one of the country's highest courts held a midmorning cocktail event to determine whether a drinks company's canned beverages are sweet enough to be taxed as alcopops.

The paper says two judges and a court clerk convened the 10 a.m. tipple at the Federal Administrative Court in Bern on April 14.

They tested each of the company's five drinks twice - with and without ice.

Representatives of the Swiss Alcohol Board and Zurich drinks importer Bevis joined in too.

Mr. Potato

Denmark: Santas Get Physical at World Santa Claus Congress

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© POLFOTO/Joachim AdrianA Santa bathes his feet during the World Santa Claus Congress in front of the Little Mermaid statue in the harbour of Copenhagen, on Monday, July 18, 2011.
The Olympics have pentathlons - and so does the World Santa Congress, sort of.

Santas from all over the world lugged their overweight waistlines to this year's 54th World Santa Claus Congress, throwing sacks of presents and firing canon balls in a new physical fitness contest.

The five-discipline event is the latest addition to the three-day conference at the world's oldest amusement park: Bakken, just outside the Danish capital of Copenhagen.

Two teams of St. Nicks - one from Denmark and the other from the United States, Sweden, Russia, Germany and other countries - competed Wednesday for the coveted trophy of Best Santa Team.

The Danish Santas won.

Binoculars

US: Northborough, Massachusetts - Where Streets Have No Name

Police in one Massachusetts town are investigating the mysterious disappearance of about 100 street signs.

The signs first starting vanishing from Northborough street corners about six months ago.

It's an expensive problem. Public Works Director Kara Buzanoski says the cost of replacing them is about $15,000.

Buzanoski and police Chief Mark Leahy suspect teenage pranksters, but so far there have been no arrests.

The town had a similar problem a few years ago when several teens were apparently involved in a contest to see how many signs they could purloin. When police started closing in on those culprits, the signs started reappearing.

Leahy says this time the thieves will be prosecuted.

The town will replace the stolen signs.