Once a Kid Always a Kid

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Cat gets promoted to executive post at railway company

KINOKAWA, Wakayama -- The cat stationmaster of a railroad station here has been appointed as a corporate executive of the Wakayama Electric Railway Co., the company has announced.
The train operator has promoted 10-year-old female cat Tama, currently a stationmaster of Kishi Station on the Kishikawa Line, to the post of operating officer in recognition of her contribution to expanding the customer base.
This is the first time in the world for a cat to become an executive of a railroad corporation, a company official said. Tama will continue to serve as the stationmaster while assuming the new role.
The cat has climbed the ladder of success swiftly since she was first appointed as the stationmaster in January 2007. Tama was promoted to "Super Stationmaster" the following year and to corporate executive in a mere three years since her first appointment. Tama is officially introduced as an operating officer on the company's Web site.
Since the company took over operation of the Kishikawa Line from the Nankai Electric Railway Co. in 2006, annual users have increased by about 300,000 to some 2.2 million. As the company considers Tama has played an important role in increasing passenger numbers, it decided to reward the cat's contribution with accelerated promotion.
Some 100 fans visited the official appointment event on Sunday to congratulate the cat.
"Tama has also contributed to drawing public attention back to felines as dogs continue to enjoy greater popularity," said President Mitsunobu Kojima. The railroad company plans to rebuild Kishi Station into the shape of cat's face this summer.
As Tama has already gained 0.3 kilograms in the past three years, it refrained from accepting a hike in wages, which is paid in cat food.
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Pretty in PINK

An environmental artist in Fargo, N.D., says she paints the snow on her home's yard a different color each time flakes fall.
While Fargo resident Stevie Famulari's front yard currently is pink, the landscape architecture professor at North Dakota State University is eyeing purplish blue snow for the next snowfall.
Famulari's color scheme, which includes darker colors as winter progresses, is intended to unveil a colorful rainbow when the snow finally melts.
"It'll be a beautiful rainbow when it comes back," she said. "Happily, I don't expect it to melt at the same rate so the front of the yard may reveal the pinks or the purples sooner, the back of the yard will still be the blacks and the blues."
Famulari said while some enjoy her colorful lawn and others are less supportive, it does serve as an intriguing conversation starter.
"Either way, it causes controversy and it causes people to talk and talking causes change," she said. "Like it or hate it, at least it's discussed."
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Please Let Me In

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Fireman’s Reward

A fire starts inside a chemical plant and the alarm goes out to fire departments miles around. After crews have been fighting the fire for over an hour, the chemical company president approached the fire chief and said, “All of our secret formulas are in the vault in the center of the plant. They must be saved! I will give $100,000 to the engine company that brings them out safely!”
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The crews try, but no one can get through. Then another fire truck, filled with a volunteer fire company of men over 65, comes roaring down the road and drives straight into the middle of the inferno. The other men watches unbelieving as the old timers hop off of their rig and heroically extinguish the fire, saving the secret formulas.
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The company president walks over to reward the volunteers.
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“What do you guys plan to do with the money?” the president asks the group.
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The fire truck driver looks him right in the eye and answers, “Well, the first thing we’re going to do is fix the brakes on that truck.”?
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Man Turns Hearse into Pet Limo

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Funny and More in the news

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I'll Be Back

January 4, 2010

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Mom locked in wardrobe for seven hours by toddler

When Karen Kilgour decided to spend a day at home tidying the house and playing with her infant son, she got a lot more than she bargained for.
Mrs. Kilgour, from Mt Eden in Auckland, New Zealand, had to be rescued after spending seven hours trapped inside a tiny wardrobe after her 14-month-old son Harry shut the door on her.
“I’m slowly starting to see the funny side,” Mrs. Kilgour told The Times, after recalling her household ordeal.
The 32-year-old antiques dealer was tidying up the clothes in her son’s bedroom wardrobe at 9.30am on Friday morning when the toddler, playing on the bedroom floor next to her, decided to play a game of hide and seek.
“I could see him at the door and he was closing it ever so slightly, but it was just like a game,” she said. “But the next thing I know he pushed the door to and I suddenly I thought: ‘Oh my god, I’m locked in here by myself’.”
The wardrobe was about 16in (40cm) deep and unfortunately for Mrs. Kilgour, unlike the others in the newly built home, it did not have a magnetic lock.
Mrs. Kilgour spent about three hours trying to open the door. First she tried to bang it open with her hip. Then she pulled a shelf off the wall and tried to wedge it in the door crevice, and even tried to pull bits of metal off an ironing board in the wardrobe to break the door frame – to no avail.
Screaming for the neighbors did not help either as every time Mrs. Kilgour screamed, her son became distressed and began crying too.
At one point she put her fingers under the door and called out for Harry, who came over and played with them. But he grew bored and crawled out of the bedroom.
“I could hear him bashing and screaming and crashing and crying all over the house,” Mrs. Kilgour said.
“For a few hours he wasn’t in the room and I was very worried about what he was doing, I was very concerned for him because he’s only 14 months old. He can’t walk but he’s definitely into climbing. I was just thankful the back door was closed so he couldn’t go out into the garden.”
Eventually Harry came back into the room, and as Mrs. Kilgour began to sing to him, he eventually fell asleep on the bedroom floor. “It was only then that I was finally able to totally relax,” she said.
At about 4.30pm – seven hours after she became locked in the wardrobe – Mrs. Kilgour’s husband Jason came home from work and let her out. She was lucky – Mr. Kilgour was supposed to have been out until midnight but had come home between work functions because of heavy traffic.
Mrs. Kilgour was unharmed apart from being dehydrated and hungry. And Harry seemed to have survived his day at home by helping himself to food left over from breakfast, and playing with his favorite toys.
As for the wardrobe door, the family is planning to get builder back to put a handle on it.
“Harry is actually quite scared of the wardrobe now; he bursts into tears every time we go near it,” Mrs. Kilgour said.
“It will be a funny story for his 21st, but I’m just happy he was ok.”
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'Cavemen' inherit billions

Two penniless brothers who are so poor they live in a cave could be set to inherit a share of a £4 billion fortune.
Zslot and Geza Peladi live in the cave outside Budapest, Hungary, and sell scrap they find on the street for pennies.
Now they and a sister who lives in America are said to be on the verge of inheriting their grandmother's massive fortune after a life of poverty.
They learned of their good fortune after homelessness charity workers in Hungary were contacted by lawyers handling the estate of the brothers' maternal grandmother who died recently in Baden-Wurttenberg, Germany.
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American Airlines redefines the term "Wide Body"

Obese air passenger in economy seat has picture taken
An image of an obese passenger squeezed into an economy airline seat has reopened a debate about how airlines deal with growing numbers of oversized passengers.
The picture, posted on an aviation blog, was reportedly taken by a flight attendant to illustrate to airline managers the difficulty of dealing with passengers who cannot fit into seats.
It is unclear if the man was aware his picture was being taken or whether the flight, on US carrier American Airlines, took off with the passenger spilling out of his seat.
Airlines already offer extended seatbelts to larger passengers to comply with safety rules but a number of carriers now insist obese customers buy an extra seat.

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