Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Digest

Noteworthy

By TIMES WIRES
Published September 23, 2006

Don't help the kid stealing the car

The young man behind the wheel of the car seemed to be struggling with the manual transmission. So a group of at least 15 people in Mesa, Ariz., gathered around and tried to help him out. They gave him a push start. Ease off the clutch, ease on the gas. Stuff like that. Margarita Wood even jumped in the car to give him a driving lesson. That was when the police showed up and arrested the boy, who is 14, for stealing the car. None of the would-be Samaritans knew. "It is incredible that an entire neighborhood would participate in this comedy of errors," said Sgt. Dave Norton.

It's better when the gnome just leaves

Allen Snyder's garden art is having more fun than he is. The 14-inch tall red and white gnome, unimaginatively named "Gnomey," disappeared from Snyder's Morgantown, W.Va., lawn in the spring, and Snyder has received three letters since then. The latest included a photo of Gnomey at a Pittsburgh Steelers game, above. "You never took me to any games," the note said. An earlier letter requested bail money and included photos of the trollish rock in the back of a police car.

OBITUARY

Jim Schinneller, 81, a retired art professor who taught at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, died at his home Sept. 9. He was famous in his circle of friends for his sense of humor, and that attribute didn't end with his death. His partner, Gloria Nosben, decided to let him get one last laugh when she included a photo of the back of his head to run with his obituary in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. He didn't have the photo taken for his obit; it was taken as a Christ-mas gift for his kids a couple of years ago. (Awwwwww.) He had it framed and everything. "He liked to buck the system," his daughter Diane Colla said. "He enjoyed showing people how absurd life was."

PET PROJECT

The dogs of war

Some 300 homeless dogs and cats left behind by owners who fled Lebanon during the recent war will be sent to the United States on Monday for adoption. Hopefully this will work out better than the post-Katrina pet adoptions.

'QUOTE'

"He will get a standing ovation, (but) it will be totally orchestrated, choreographed and controlled."

Lawmaker Andrew McKinley, on British Prime Minister Tony Blair's final speech before a Labor Party conference. McKinley is a longtime opponent of Blair.

WEEK AHEAD

MONDAY: Pope Benedict XVI speaks with representatives of Muslim nations, hoping to defuse anger over recent remarks about Islam.

TUESDAY: Former Enron CFO Andrew Fastow sentenced.

WEDNESDAY: President Bush holds talks with Afghanistan's Hamid Karzai and Pakistan's Pervez Musharraf.

[Last modified September 23, 2006, 01:27:50]