KFC offers $11,000 for naming baby after Colonel sanders
Fast food chain KFC is offering expecting parents the chance to win $11,000 for their child by naming them Harland after Col Sanders. The chain said the first baby named Harland to be born on September 9, the Colonel’s birthday, and registered with the restaurant will win $11,000 to go toward their college education. The amount of the cash price was chosen in honour of KFC’s famous 11 herbs and spices.
KFC said the US Social Security Administration lists Harland as the 3,257th most common baby name of 2017. “Even though vintage names are making a comeback, our iconic founder’s name was dwindling in popularity, and we couldn’t just stand idly by and let that happen,” said Andrea Zahumensky, KFC US chief marketing officer. “We hope that this birthday celebration honours the Colonel and encourages the next generation of people aspiring to live the American dream.”
(UPI)
Maine fisherman finds rare ‘ghost lobster’
A Maine fisherman who hauled in a translucent ‘ghost lobster’ off the state’s coast snapped photos before returning the crustacean to the ocean. Mike Billings posted photos to Facebook showing the translucent white lobster he caught off the coast of Stonington. The lobster’s lack of pigment is a trait found only in one out of every 100 million lobsters, experts said. Billings said he threw the lobster back into the water because it was too small to keep.
(UPI)
city all set to double in population — to four
North Dakota’s smallest incorporated city was on the verge of dissolving after the death of its longtime Mayor. But now it’s rebounding, with expectations to double its population — from two residents to four. The McLean County community of Ruso was on the verge of disincorporation when its population dropped following the July death of 86-year-old Bruce Lorenz. It takes a minimum of three residents for a community to be incorporated, according to the North Dakota Century Code. “We want to keep it going for Bruce’s sake,” Laurinda Roloson, the city’s auditor and one of Ruso’s two remaining residents, told the Minot Daily News. Her husband, Terry Roloson, is the other Ruso resident.
The city discovered that Greg Schmaltz qualifies as a resident because he has a Ruso mailbox and makes daily checks on his horses and chickens on land within city limits. So on Thursday, he’s expected to become the city’s next Mayor. Schmaltz and his wife, Michelle, currently live in Velva but plan to move later this year to Ruso, where they have a residence under construction. “We’re looking at fall to finish everything up,” Greg Schmaltz said.
Ruso was first incorporated in 1909, and it had a population of 141 a year later. The city’s population dwindled when its last remaining business, the grain elevator, took its last load in 1956.
Schmaltz hopes others will follow him to Ruso, which is about 40 miles (64 kilometres) southeast of Minot near Strawberry Lake. “Other people have expressed interest in moving out there. We don’t want things to slow down,” he said. “I’m about preserving what little is left of Ruso. I’m proud of being out there.”
(AP)
35-foot skateboard dubbed world’s largest by Guinness
A Los Angeles man’s massive skateboard, measuring 35 feet, 7 inches long, has been certified by Guinness World Records as the largest in the world. Joe Giaglia, director of California Skateparks, originally created the big board for MTV series Rob Dyrdek’s Fantasy Factory and is a 12.5 scale replica of Dyrdek’s own board. “The hardest part was not having any directions or blueprints,” he told Guinness World Records. “We just started and figured it out as we progressed. The process took us about 10 weeks, a lot of things were trial and error.”
The skateboard, which measures 8 feet, 8 inches wide and 3 feet, 7.5 inches tall, appears in the 2019 Guinness Book of World Records, the record-keeping organisation said. Ciaglia said the board was designed to function in the same way as a much-smaller board, with the main differences being its size, a supporting steel frame and using race car tires. He said the board is a major attention-grabber.
“One time in New York, we were driving out of Times Square and a police officer pulled me over. I thought I had done something wrong and then he said: ‘Can I get on your board?’ So he literally pulled me over to take a picture on the skateboard!” Ciaglia said.
(UPI)
Thief in Mexico tries to steal hearse — with body inside
Police in central Mexico they’ve caught a man who made off with a hearse — complete with a corpse inside. The Tlaquepaque police department says on its Facebook page that the hearse had been readied to take the body of an 80-year-old man from a hospital in neighboring Guadalajara to a funeral home. Police say a 40-year-old man has admitted seeing the keys left in the vehicle and deciding to take it late Friday night. Officers were alerted and they soon spotted the hearse along a highway and detained the suspect, whose name was given only as Annibal Saul. Police said last week he’s been turned over to prosecutors. Both the hearse and the body were recovered.
(AP)
