In the News

2 people watch 123 hours of movies in NYC
You may want to try this at home.
Suresh Joachim, of Toronto, and Claudia Wavra, of Germany, claim to have broken the world record for continuous movie watching, after seeing 57 films in 123 hours in a plexi-glass house in Times Square.
A Guinness World Records spokesman says it appears the non-dynamic duo have broken the movie-watching record but says it will take two weeks to officially verify.
The attempt began Oct. 2 when eight challengers started watching "Iron Man." After 72 hours, only two remained. They watched "Thelma and Louise" until the end on 3:10 p.m. Tuesday.
Susan Sarandon, a star of that film, dropped off the final film.
The rules: Each movie had to be viewed until the last credit rolled, and competitors could not divert their eyes from the screen. They were allowed 10-minute breaks between movies.
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One Squirrel Leaves Trail of Destruction
A squirrel ignited a fiery chain reaction that led to a power line collapse, car fire, natural gas fire and a power outage in northwest Spokane Wednesday morning.
It all started at 8:22 a.m. in the 4900 block of North Hartley at Wellesley when, according to Avista investigators, a squirrel came in contact with a transformer. That single action set in motion a chain of events.
First, the power line burned through causing the line to fall to the ground and come into contact with a metal fence and a car. The car caught on fire.
The fence, meanwhile, was energized by the fallen power line and the electricity was conducted underground to a natural gas pipeline which in turn burned through and started an underground natural gas fire which burned up to two gas meters at nearby houses.
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$42M Lottery Winner In Mich. Favors Annuity Over Lump Sum
A winner of a $42 million Mega Millions jackpot in Michigan may do something almost unheard of: receive the money in installments rather than getting a smaller, one-time cash payment. The winner of the Oct. 3 jackpot indicated a preference for taking the annuity. State lottery spokeswoman Andi Brancato says she can't remember a Mega Millions winner in Michigan ever doing that since the game was launched in 2002.
Lottery winners typically take a lump-sum payment with plans to invest it, but confidence in the market has dropped with the current financial crisis. The Dow has lost nearly 40 percent since closing at its all-time high a year ago.
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