Free Gas Sets Off Fights in Milwaukee
Wednesday, July 12, 2006 4:46 PM EDT
The Associated Press
MILWAUKEE (AP) Two vehicles crashed and four people were arrested in excitement over a gasoline giveaway Wednesday to reward the city for its safe-driving record.
For the most part, hundreds of drivers waited patiently for hours for about $30 worth of free gasoline each that Allstate Insurance provided at one station.
However, some motorists started lining up before midnight and the queue stretched far from the station into a residential area, trapping some residents in their driveways, said police spokeswoman Anne E. Schwartz.
That led to fights and arrests for disorderly conduct. In one case, three officers were sent to a hospital as a precaution because they were spattered with blood from someone's bloodied nose, Schwartz said.
The two crashes apparently occurred when queued-up motorists tried to let friends into line, Schwartz said.
"Any time you offer free gas when it is $3 a gallon, it is not surprising people would get excited," she said.
Allstate gave away a tanker truck load of gasoline as a reward to Milwaukee for ranking No. 1 among mid-sized cities on its safe drivers list.
Clarence Jefferson said he thought he'd be first in line when he got there at 4 a.m. but found hundreds of others already ahead of him. Pumps were turned on at about 6 a.m.
"It doesn't matter," he said. "It helps. Every bit is worth it."
Teen's Name Changed After Years of Mockery
Friday, July 7, 2006 11:27 PM EDT
The Associated Press
HANOI, Vietnam (AP) After nearly two decades of ridicule, a Vietnamese father has agreed to change his son's name from "Fined Six Thousand and Five Hundred."
The unfortunate moniker, translated from Vietnamese, represents the 6,500 dong, the local currency, that Mai Xuan Can was forced to pay for ignoring Vietnam's two-child policy.
In a fit of anger, Can in 1987 named his newborn son Mai Phat Sau Nghin Ruoi, said Dai Cuong village chief Nguyen Huy Thuong.
In 1999, local government officials tried to persuade Can to change the name because classmates constantly teased the boy at school in central Quang Nam province.
But Can, a former People's Committee official, refused to back down, Thuong said.
They appealed to him again recently, and this time it worked.
"I told him that as his son is growing up, he should have another name not that weird name and he finally agreed," Thuong said.
The son, now 19, is now Mai Hoang Long, which means "Golden Dragon."
Vietnam, with a population of 83 million, applied tight family planning measures until recently to keep couples from having more than two children.
Docs Remove 119 Nails From Woman's Stomach
Friday, June 30, 2006 5:57 PM EDT
The Associated Press
HANOI, Vietnam (AP) Vietnamese doctors removed 119 rusty nails from a mentally ill woman's stomach after she apparently swallowed them months ago, a doctor said Friday.
The 43-year-old woman arrived Wednesday at Hospital No. 121 in the southern city of Can Tho City, complaining of a severe stomachache.
"After having her stomach X-rayed and scanned, we found a stack of strange objects and decided to operate as soon as possible," said Dr. Tran Van Nam.
During the surgery, doctors removed 119 2.8 to 3.2-inch nails. Many were rusty, indicating they could have been in her stomach for months, Nam said.
The patient's stomach was scratched by the nails, but she did not suffer any major injuries, he said.
"Her life is not at risk now, and she is recovering," Nam said, adding the patient was expected to be discharged soon.
american ingenuity at its finest!!
Home Chemistry Gag Cooks Up Internet Fame
Thursday, June 29, 2006 8:19 AM EDT
The Associated Press
PORTLAND, Maine (AP) A pair of Mainers who became Internet celebrities by plopping Mentos into Diet Coke to create geysers are about to become hits on mainstream media.
Fritz Grobe, 37, and Stephen Voltz, 48, were scheduled to appear on David Letterman's show Thursday night and on the Today show Friday morning to demonstrate their explosive and entertaining chemistry experiments featuring candy and soda.
The Buckfield residents have had more than 3.5 million hits on their Web site since they posted a 3-minute video of their homemade experiment involving more than 500 Mentos and more than 100 two-liter plastic bottles of Diet Coke in early June.
"This has turned into a global phenomenon in a way that was totally unexpected. We expected to tell our friends, who would tell their friends, and then maybe a few weeks later we would start seeing some larger interest. But we never anticipated this," Grobe said Wednesday.
Grobe and Voltz are known around Maine for their regular appearances as part of "The Early Evening Show" at the Oddfellow Theater, a 156-seat theater in Buckfield.
Their Mentos-Diet Coke experiment began on a whim eight months ago. "Stephen heard from a friend that if you drop Mentos in soda it makes a fountain. We tried it like so many others have, and said, 'This is really cool,'" Grobe said.
They started with 10 bottles and saw the potential for more. "We knew there were so many more possibilities. We were just scratching the surface," he said.
The geysers created on their video look like choreographed fireworks or the dancing fountain at Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas.
On Letterman's show, they hoped to utilize 120 bottles of soda, if time permits.
Grobe said it isn't essential to use a Coke product, although diet soda seems to work better than regular soda, he said. "And don't forget Moxie," he said of the soft drink that originated in Maine. "Moxie works very well, as well."
Wednesday, July 12, 2006 4:46 PM EDT
The Associated Press
MILWAUKEE (AP) Two vehicles crashed and four people were arrested in excitement over a gasoline giveaway Wednesday to reward the city for its safe-driving record.
For the most part, hundreds of drivers waited patiently for hours for about $30 worth of free gasoline each that Allstate Insurance provided at one station.
However, some motorists started lining up before midnight and the queue stretched far from the station into a residential area, trapping some residents in their driveways, said police spokeswoman Anne E. Schwartz.
That led to fights and arrests for disorderly conduct. In one case, three officers were sent to a hospital as a precaution because they were spattered with blood from someone's bloodied nose, Schwartz said.
The two crashes apparently occurred when queued-up motorists tried to let friends into line, Schwartz said.
"Any time you offer free gas when it is $3 a gallon, it is not surprising people would get excited," she said.
Allstate gave away a tanker truck load of gasoline as a reward to Milwaukee for ranking No. 1 among mid-sized cities on its safe drivers list.
Clarence Jefferson said he thought he'd be first in line when he got there at 4 a.m. but found hundreds of others already ahead of him. Pumps were turned on at about 6 a.m.
"It doesn't matter," he said. "It helps. Every bit is worth it."
Teen's Name Changed After Years of Mockery
Friday, July 7, 2006 11:27 PM EDT
The Associated Press
HANOI, Vietnam (AP) After nearly two decades of ridicule, a Vietnamese father has agreed to change his son's name from "Fined Six Thousand and Five Hundred."
The unfortunate moniker, translated from Vietnamese, represents the 6,500 dong, the local currency, that Mai Xuan Can was forced to pay for ignoring Vietnam's two-child policy.
In a fit of anger, Can in 1987 named his newborn son Mai Phat Sau Nghin Ruoi, said Dai Cuong village chief Nguyen Huy Thuong.
In 1999, local government officials tried to persuade Can to change the name because classmates constantly teased the boy at school in central Quang Nam province.
But Can, a former People's Committee official, refused to back down, Thuong said.
They appealed to him again recently, and this time it worked.
"I told him that as his son is growing up, he should have another name not that weird name and he finally agreed," Thuong said.
The son, now 19, is now Mai Hoang Long, which means "Golden Dragon."
Vietnam, with a population of 83 million, applied tight family planning measures until recently to keep couples from having more than two children.
Docs Remove 119 Nails From Woman's Stomach
Friday, June 30, 2006 5:57 PM EDT
The Associated Press
HANOI, Vietnam (AP) Vietnamese doctors removed 119 rusty nails from a mentally ill woman's stomach after she apparently swallowed them months ago, a doctor said Friday.
The 43-year-old woman arrived Wednesday at Hospital No. 121 in the southern city of Can Tho City, complaining of a severe stomachache.
"After having her stomach X-rayed and scanned, we found a stack of strange objects and decided to operate as soon as possible," said Dr. Tran Van Nam.
During the surgery, doctors removed 119 2.8 to 3.2-inch nails. Many were rusty, indicating they could have been in her stomach for months, Nam said.
The patient's stomach was scratched by the nails, but she did not suffer any major injuries, he said.
"Her life is not at risk now, and she is recovering," Nam said, adding the patient was expected to be discharged soon.
american ingenuity at its finest!!
Home Chemistry Gag Cooks Up Internet Fame
Thursday, June 29, 2006 8:19 AM EDT
The Associated Press
PORTLAND, Maine (AP) A pair of Mainers who became Internet celebrities by plopping Mentos into Diet Coke to create geysers are about to become hits on mainstream media.
Fritz Grobe, 37, and Stephen Voltz, 48, were scheduled to appear on David Letterman's show Thursday night and on the Today show Friday morning to demonstrate their explosive and entertaining chemistry experiments featuring candy and soda.
The Buckfield residents have had more than 3.5 million hits on their Web site since they posted a 3-minute video of their homemade experiment involving more than 500 Mentos and more than 100 two-liter plastic bottles of Diet Coke in early June.
"This has turned into a global phenomenon in a way that was totally unexpected. We expected to tell our friends, who would tell their friends, and then maybe a few weeks later we would start seeing some larger interest. But we never anticipated this," Grobe said Wednesday.
Grobe and Voltz are known around Maine for their regular appearances as part of "The Early Evening Show" at the Oddfellow Theater, a 156-seat theater in Buckfield.
Their Mentos-Diet Coke experiment began on a whim eight months ago. "Stephen heard from a friend that if you drop Mentos in soda it makes a fountain. We tried it like so many others have, and said, 'This is really cool,'" Grobe said.
They started with 10 bottles and saw the potential for more. "We knew there were so many more possibilities. We were just scratching the surface," he said.
The geysers created on their video look like choreographed fireworks or the dancing fountain at Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas.
On Letterman's show, they hoped to utilize 120 bottles of soda, if time permits.
Grobe said it isn't essential to use a Coke product, although diet soda seems to work better than regular soda, he said. "And don't forget Moxie," he said of the soft drink that originated in Maine. "Moxie works very well, as well."
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And you made me a fave girly too! Awww....