It's a Small World

Adopted son finds birth mother at his workplace

For years, Steve Flaig, a delivery truck driver at the Lowe's store on Plainfield Avenue, had searched for his birth mother. He found her working the cash register at the front of the store. For several months, he and Christine Tallady had known each other casually as co-workers. Last Friday they met for the first time as mother and son. "I have a complete family now, all my kids," said Tallady, who has two younger children. "It's a perfect time of year. It's the best Christmas present ever." Full story here.

Are you smarter then a monkey?

Monkeys are as smart as humans at math?
Monkeys performed about as well as college students at mental addition, U.S. researchers said on Monday in a finding that suggests nonverbal math skills are not unique to humans. The research from Duke University follows the finding by Japanese researchers earlier this month that young chimpanzees performed better than human adults at a memory game. Prior studies have found non-human primates can match numbers of objects, compare numbers and choose the larger number of two sets of objects. » Full article here

Police Reward Good Drivers With Coffee

RANCHO CORDOVA, Calif. (AP) - Happy holidays. Now pull over to the side of the road.
Motorists may be in for a surprise if they spot flashing red lights in their rearview mirrors in this Sacramento suburb during the holiday season.
Police are stopping law-abiding motorists and rewarding their good driving with $5 Starbucks gift cards.
A traffic officer came up with the idea to "promote the holiday spirit and enhance goodwill between the traffic unit and the motoring public," police Sgt. Tim Curran said.
Local businesses donated money to buy the gift cards.
"They raised a substantial amount of money," Curran said. "They'll be pulling over a lot of people."

Do you know Christmas

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How well do you know Christmas?

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Here’s another quiz about Christmas Carols.

Getting together for Christmas

A man in Des Moines calls his son in Los Angeles the day before Christmas and says, 'I hate to ruin Christmas this year, but I have to tell you that your mother and I are divorcing; forty-five years of misery is enough.'

'Dad, what are you talking about?' the son screams. 'We can't stand the sight of each other any longer,' the father says. 'We're sick of each other, and I'm sick of talking about this, so you call your sister in Denver and tell her.'

Frantic, the son calls his sister, who explodes on the phone. 'Like hell they're getting divorced,' she shouts, 'I'll take care of this.' She calls her parents immediately, and screams at her father, 'You are NOT getting divorced. Don't do a single thing until I get there. I'm calling my brother back and we'll both be there tomorrow. Until then, don't do a thing, DO YOU HEAR ME?' and hangs up.

The old man hangs up his phone and turns to his wife. 'Okay,' he says, 'they're coming for Christmas and paying their own way.'

The After Life

92-year-old reads her own obituary
Anne E. Hathaway was somewhat shocked Friday when a friend called to see if she was still alive.
The Orono resident’s obituary had appeared in Friday’s Bangor Daily News. The information in the short obituary and the list of death notices was correct, except for the part about her being dead. The deceased was actually Ann Hathaway of Bangor.
Both women had made advance funeral arrangements at the same funeral home. When pulling the file for the deceased Ann Hathaway, the funeral home employee didn’t realize there were two women with very similar names and grabbed the wrong one.
At 92, Hathaway admits she’s no spring chicken but said that she’s not dead yet "I just laughed," Hathaway said. "I went to the pearly gates and opened the door and they didn’t have any strawberry shortcake and they didn’t like the way my hair looked."




Widow takes her husband's ashes to NFL game?
Richard Desrosiers never made it to Heinz Field to watch his beloved Steelers play football, but his widow helped him fulfill his dream in death. Thanks to some help from sympathetic donors, Kathleen Desrosiers attended Sunday's game, bringing an urn with some of her late husband's ashes, as well as his ring and two pictures of him. He had died in March of a brain tumor.
Though he lived in Exeter, N.H., Richard Desrosiers adopted the Steelers at an early age and followed them closely. He named his dog Steeler and his wardrobe, by his widow's estimate, was 95 percent Steelers gear. Desrosiers was covered with a Steelers blanket when he died, and at his funeral, his two stepsons honored his memory by donning Steelers jerseys. » Article here

Giant love spoon world record

A 44ft (13.41m) love spoon being carved outside Cardiff Castle is due to be completed in the next few days. Ed Harrison from Pontsian, Ceredigion, is attempting to break the world record for the largest wooden spoon which currently stands at 25ft 9in (7.86m). Using a chainsaw, Mr Harrison is carving the spoon out of a felled Red Cedar tree from the Caerphilly area. It has taken him over a week to finish the spoon which features a heart, cage, dragon and links, all symbolising love. Welsh love spoons, which date back to the 17th Century, were traditionally given as a declaration of love or to commemorate a marriage, anniversary or birth. You can see more of Mr Harrison's work on his website, and while there is no doubt that he's a master at carving wood, it doesn't look like spelling is his strong point.

What do you want for Christmas?

Joy for little girl who wants hair for Christmas

A girl of four has offered to cut off her long hair to help another youngster's Christmas wish come true. Earlier this month, four-year-old Kazia-Leigh Rutherford, who has a disease which makes her hair grow in tufts, wrote a letter to Santa asking for a full head of hair.

Now Morna Francesca Moore, four, and her mother Sanja, 36, of Nottingham, have offered to have their own locks made into hair extensions for Kazia-Leigh.

Mrs Moore, who has dark hair down to her waist, said: 'Having a four-year-old daughter with really long hair made me relate to the story. When I told my daughter, Morna Francesca, about it she said: “Mum, I'll give her mine.” She is only four, but she is perfectly ready to do that.' Doctors are baffled that Kazia-Leigh, from Hebburn, Tyneside, has never been able to grow more than a couple of inches of hair. Kazia's family have yet to respond to the offer.

Modern Knight

This is not a spider web;

it's the digitally captured path of a spider during web construction.

Click to Enlarge