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Letter to the editor

The skinny

By Times Wires
Published January 15, 2008

Emergency!

No mates on ship, he calls mates at pub

Alan Thompson of Chichester, England, was injured and stranded alone in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean on the 37-foot yacht he had just bought in Florida. So, cut off from his emergency radio and satellite phone in hand, he called the first logical outlet for rescue: his local pub. "He didn't want to make a big fuss, but it was very worrying," said Roger Pocock of the Bull's Head, which is roughly 3,000 miles from where Thompson was. Pocock managed to contact officials who dispatched a rescue team. They saved Thompson, but the boat was abandoned. And it was uninsured.

Plenty of parking

Having hospital nearby is handy

Rena Wilkey's neighbors, one by one, have pretty much all sold out to the hospital in Springfield, Ill. But Wilkey hasn't, and that means that her house is now pretty much surrounded by hospital parking lot. She says hospital officials call every year and ask her if she has changed her mind, and every year Wilkey, 73, says no. "I'm comfortable here. And I don't care about the money. Money don't buy happiness." That, and as it stands, the lots are well-lit, and the hospital even clears the snow from her sidewalks. She says she has too many memories from living in the house 50 years and has gotten used to not having any neighbors. She says some of them were troublemakers, anyway.

Bank flubber

Goop worked, but plate sold him out

When Robert Lavery robbed the New Cumberland Federal Credit Union in York, Pa., in November 2006, he disguised his appearance by masking himself with a thick coat of drywall compound. Which almost worked. The only reason it didn't was because the getaway car had a license plate declaring allegiance to NASCAR driver Rusty Wallace, and in York, that was enough information to send people to the house of Robert Miller, who was the getaway driver. Police found a wad of cash at Miller's house, as well as compound smeared inside the car. Miller pleaded guilty in October; Lavery was convicted last week.

Update

Ice boxes fighting

The disagreement between Fraser, Colo., and International Falls, Minn., has become an official matter of court record. The two cities are duking it out over which city is officially the "Ice Box of the Nation." Fraser says it has used the title since 1956, while International Falls says it has used it since 1948. They are now suing each other, with the basis of each suit telling the other to prove it. Initially, officials in Fraser wanted to have a snowshoe challenge to settle the score, while the International Falls mayor wanted to have a snowball fight. It seems worth mentioning that in 2007, two Florida cities, Orlando and Coral Gables, suddenly realized that they both went by the nickname "The City Beautiful," and considered getting all legal with each other, then each decided that it was okay if the other was also beautiful.

Compiled from Times wire services and other sources by staff writer Jim Webster, who can be reached at jwebster@sptimes.com.

[Last modified January 14, 2008, 23:26:16]