Oddly enough

Mayor quotes Jay-Z after ‘not guilty’ DUI verdict

A South Carolina Mayor quoted rapper Jay-Z on Twitter after he was found not guilty of driving under the influence. “In the words of Jay Z, ‘not guilty, y’all got to feel me,’” Greenwood Mayor Wellborn Adams tweeted after the jury found him not guilty after deliberating for five minutes. Adams was arrested at a checkpoint just yards from his home in September 2015 after his wife’s 40th birthday.

State trooper Derek Johnson tried to present as evidence a breath test that showed Adams’ blood-alcohol level was 0.09 per cent — over the legal limit of 0.08 per cent where juries may presume a driver is legally drunk, The Index-Journal of Greenwood reported.

But a judge agreed with an argument from Adams’ lawyer Billy Nicholson III that the trooper did not give Adams enough time to fully read the form consenting to the test. Nicholson told the jury Adams failed sobriety tests such as standing on one leg because he tore his Achilles tendon three years ago.

The defense lawyer called Adams’ wife to the stand, who said he trips regularly while jogging. “I don’t want to make fun of him,” Ericka Adams said, laughing. “He’s a genius, but he is clumsy.”

(AP)

German man reports bomb, cops find zucchini

An 81-year-old German man called police to tell them he found a World War II-era bomb in his garden, but when officers showed up, they found a large zucchini instead. The man found the 11-pound, 15.7-inch-long vegetable last Thursday in his back yard in Bretten in the southwest German State of Baden-Württemberg. He believed it to be a bomb, but upon arrival, police said they found a dark-coloured zucchini. Officers were able to dispose of the vegetable without having to call a bomb-disposal team. Police said they believe someone may have thrown the zucchini over the man’s garden hedge.

Though World War II has been over for more than 70 years, unexploded bombs are still periodically found throughout the country. In September, Frankfurt officials evacuated some 65,000 residents when they found a 1.4-tonne bomb at a construction site.

(UPI)

Prankster tosses yellow dye into Lincoln Center fountain

A prankster has thrown yellow dye into the fountain at New York’s Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. Photos posted on social media show lemon-yellow water gushing from the fountain, which sits in front of the Metropolitan Opera and is a popular tourist attraction that has been featured in movies including Moonstruck and Ghostbusters. The Daily News reports the fountain was turned off after suddenly changing colour last Saturday afternoon. A Lincoln Center spokeswoman says security notified the police, who are looking for the prankster. She says the fountain is being cleaned.

(AP)

Firm gives extra holidays to non-smoking employees

A marketing company in Tokyo is awarding a novel perk to its non-puffing employees: An extra week’s holiday! The corporate planning director for Piala, Hirotaka Matsushima, said last Thursday that the company began offering the six days of extra vacation to all of its 120 staff members in September.

“Yes, it’s pretty popular,” said Matsushima, himself a nonsmoker. He said the policy was installed as a benefit for nonsmokers to compensate for smoking breaks taken by their colleagues. About two-thirds of the company’s employees don’t smoke, he said.

Overall, smoking is still quite prevalent in Japan, with almost 20 per cent of over-20-year-olds saying they smoke. Nearly 40 per cent of men in their 30s smoke, though that’s down from more than half in 2001, according to Government figures.

But most office workers must do their puffing in designated smoking rooms and outdoor areas, and cities are gradually imposing limits on outdoor smoking in public areas. But most restaurants and bars still allow smoking. Piala, established in 2004, says it provides advertising and automated marketing services for direct marketers and other companies.

(AP)

A proposal with video shown before Thor

A British man proposed to his girlfriend by taking her to a movie theater where he had secretly arranged for his proposal video to be shown before Thor: Ragnarok. Craig Tampin said he took his pregnant girlfriend of three years, Danielle Shaw, to a movie theater in Newcastle, England, on November 1 to take in a screening of Marvel’s latest superhero film. A video recorded inside the theater shows the crowd reacting with surprise when one of the trailers shown before the film turns out to be a video of Tampin. The recorded message features Tampin proposing to Shaw, first in her native Welsh and then in English. Tampin said Shaw accepted the proposal.

“I think it went better than I could have hoped,” he said. “I was getting more and more nervous as the time approached though. I was thinking; ‘Why have I done this?’ I don’t really get nervous but that is the worst I have ever been.

But it was more perfect than I could have imagined.”

(UPI)