Offbeat News

OLIVE BRANCH, Miss. (AP) — A Mississippi man says he ordered his wife a $2,000 diamond bracelet for Christmas and was shocked see 48 of the bracelets when he opened the box. WATN-TV reports Olive Branch Alderman Dale Dickerson ordered the bracelet from a company called Jewelry Unlimited

KEENE, N.H. (AP) — A New Hampshire restaurant that’s preparing to open has removed a sign advertising its name over concerns that it sounded like profanity. The name of the Vietnamese restaurant in a public building next to City Hall in Keene is a play on a type of soup, which is spelled

HELENA, Mont. (AP) — Montana has a state song, a state ballad and a state lullaby. And, for goodness sake, Democratic Rep. Jacob Bachmeier of Havre would like to see the 2019 Legislature declare the “Hippy Hippy Shake” Montana’s official rock and roll song. It was written in

SEATTLE (AP) — Alan Naiman was known for an unabashed thriftiness that veered into comical, but even those closest to him had no inkling of the fortune that he quietly amassed and the last act that he had long planned. The Washington state social worker died of cancer this year at age 63,

MIDDLESEX, Vt. (AP) — One Vermont community is celebrating the holidays and the winter solstice with a massive bonfire and what they hope will be the world’s largest s’more. The Winter S’morestice takes place Saturday at Camp Meade in Middlesex and includes fire artists and

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — A car thief had to call the police to ask for help after he was trapped inside the car he was trying to steal. Police in Trondheim said the young man, who wasn’t identified, called the law enforcement from a car dealership in Norway’s third-largest city

NEW YORK (AP) — A Chanel purse left in a Manhattan subway station held a $10,000 surprise for the man who found it. Richard Taverna was at the West 66th Street and Broadway stop earlier this week when he spotted the purse by a platform wall. He tells the West Side Rag online blog that inside,

SHIRLEY, N.Y. (AP) — A New York couple whose Jeep crashed on the way to their wedding got lucky when a police officer responding to the accident gave them a ride to the ceremony. And he did more, serving as a witness Saturday at the town hall in Lake Grove on Long Island. Police say the

HELSINKI (AP) — Travelers beware: Russian border guards are not in a Christmas mood. They demanded that a cameraman from a pro-Kremlin broadcaster explain in writing why he was filming a meeting of Jouluvana, the Estonian version of Santa Claus, and Russia’s alter ego, Father Frost, on

NEW YORK (AP) — A mother taking her child to school says she stopped a man from stealing her car and held him down until New York City police arrived. Tihisha Jones says she started her car with an automatic car starter before leaving her Bronx apartment Tuesday when her son saw a man in the