Dolphin jumps up to give man a high five off Florida coast
A man fishing from a boat off the Florida coast captured the moment a dolphin jumped out of the water to give him a “high five.” The video, filmed Tuesday about 45 miles off the coast of Clearwater, shows a pod of dolphins swimming with the boat as it cruises through the water. The filmer holds his hand out over the water and one of the dolphins jumps out of the water, hitting the man’s hand with its dorsal fin. “Myself and six friends were offshore fishing 45 miles out of Clearwater Florida for gag grouper. Ran into this pod of dolphins who were enjoying their time around the boat. Went to get a closer video off the bow of the boat. I reached my hand down the dolphin acknowledged me by giving me a high five!”
(UPI)
Pennsylvania woman gets $284 billion electric bill
A Pennsylvania woman checked her electric bill earlier this month and found she owed more than $28 billion. Mary Horomanski had to wonder if Penelec, her electric company, raised their rates when she found her balance for November was $284,460,000,000.
“If I’m not mistaken, it’s probably higher then the national debt,” Horomanski wrote in a Facebook post on December 15, adding: “So if we sell everything we own and then some just maybe in 100 years it just may be paid off.” Horomanski contacted the Erie Times-News to let them know about the shock bill.
“My eyes just about popped out of my head,” she told the paper. Turned out, the Horomanski household didn’t run up an electric bill greater than the GDP of most states.
Mark Durbin, a spokesman for Penelec, said a decimal point was probably put in the wrong place. “I can’t recall ever seeing a bill for billions of dollars,” Durbin said. “We appreciate the customer’s willingness to reach out to us about the mistake.” But until the error was figured out, Horomanski wondered if maybe her family was at fault. “We had put up Christmas lights and I wondered if we had put them up wrong,” she said.
(UPI)
Wild truffle grows on Paris rooftop, in scientific mystery
Urban scientists and Paris foodies are getting excited about a bizarre discovery atop a hotel near the Eiffel Tower: The first-ever wild truffle growing in the French capital. It’s just one 25-gram winter truffle. But truffles normally sprout only in limited areas of southern Europe, and are so rare that the most prized versions can sell for thousands of euros per kilogram.
The National Museum of National History, which confirmed the discovery Friday, called it a “beautiful example” of environmental benefits of rooftop gardens sprouting across Paris and other cities. Urban ecology researcher Frederic Madre described on France-Info television finding the mushroom beneath a hornbeam tree at the Mercure Paris Centre hotel. This truffle was donated to science — but the hotel is already hoping to be able to offer homegrown truffles to diners someday.
(AP)
parents give teachers wine bearing photos of their son
An Ohio couple brought Christmas cheer to their son’s teachers by gifting them bottles of wine bearing photos of “the reason you drink” — their son. Mary and Paul Sommers of Beavercreek had special labels printed bearing the image of their son, eighth-grader Jake, and affixed them to the bottles of wine they gave his teachers at Ascension School in Kettering. “Our Child Might Be The Reason you Drink So Enjoy This Bottle On Us,” the labels read.
The wine bottles went viral after a photo was tweeted by Daniel Joseph “DJ” Sommers, a sophomore at Ohio State University and Jake’s oldest sibling. “My parents always get our elementary school teachers a present around Christmas. Typically something small like a candle or flower to say thank you. This year they got them bottles of wine & replaced the labels with their own with my brother on them... Happy holidays,” DJ Sommers tweeted.
Mary Sommers said the wine bottles seemed like an appropriate gift. “How many coffee mugs does a teacher need,” she told WHIO-TV. “But who doesn’t need a glass of wine after teaching a kid like mineIJ” The mother said Jake isn’t a bad kid, but he is “that kid” — a trait he received from his mom. “My four older siblings were good kids and it was hard to live up to that, so I didn’t try,” Mary Sommers said. “[Jake] always has something to say. He’s that kid.”
She said the teachers appreciated the gift. “None of the teachers were shocked by it,” she told Buzzfeed. Jake Sommers acknowledged his role in making his teachers work a little harder. “I guess my teachers deserve the wine.”
(UPI)
life-size elf decoration turns heads, even loses his own
A life-size elf mannequin on display in a Massachusetts yard has been turning heads — and occasionally losing his own. Actress Melissa McMeekin has been having a little fun by moving her 6-foot-tall elf doll to different locations outside her Rockport home. During the countdown to Christmas, Daryl the red-suited elf has appeared seated on a tree branch, riding a bicycle, lying on a hammock and tied up like a hostage. McMeekin tells the Gloucester Times her family has been getting a kick out of the double takes the moveable elf has elicited from passers-by. She says on one blustery day Daryl fell off his bike and his head landed a few feet away. McMeekin’s acting credits include The Fighter and American Hustle.
(AP)
