Offbeat

Canadian throws “˜paper,’ wins Rock Paper
Scissors

TORONTO “”mdash; The cavernous club was filled with hundreds of
fierce competitors. Striped-shirted referees kept order during the
grueling hand-to-hand combat. In the end, it came down to two men
and three “weapons” ““ rock, paper and
scissors.

Rob Krueger, 31, of Toronto, was the winner of the second
International World Rock Paper Scissors Championship on Saturday
night, taking home the $3,750 first prize.

Krueger, sporting a wild wig and wraparound shades, triumphed by
throwing “paper” to finalist Marc Rigaux’s
“rock.”

“Let the opponent make mistakes,” stressed Benjamin
Stein, 25, of New York, wearing a stars and stripes bandanna. When
he eventually fell, he blamed a failure to follow his own
advice.

“I tried hot-dogging it to get the crowd behind me. I lost
to a chump,” Stein said, using the culture’s lingo for
a slow thrower.

Other terms include “cloaking,” the trick of holding
back a throw until the last possible moment, and “paper
clipping,” a similar attempt to dupe an opponent into a false
move.

Reptile says “˜later, gator’ to pals in
baggage hold

NEWARK, N.J. ““ No, it wasn’t just an alligator bag.
Rather, a live alligator was captured inside the baggage hold of an
airliner Monday after it escaped from a crate of four gators being
shipped from Miami, officials said.

The alligator was a juvenile, 4-5 feet long, and remained inside
a burlap bag with its mouth bound shut, said Tim Wagner, an
American Airlines spokesman. He said he didn’t know how much
it weighed.

No one was reported hurt, Wagner said.

“Upon arrival at Newark, when the cargo hold was opened,
one of the alligators was outside of the crate,” said Wagner.
“Still in the burlap bag, still with his mouth bound
properly. So they called the Port Authority, put the alligator back
in the crate with its companions, and it has now been reunited with
its owners.”

“˜Porno pants’ warning not enough to dissuade
police

OREM, Utah ““ A man ordered out of his pickup by police
gave them fair warning.

Before he got out, the 43-year-old told officers he was wearing
his “˜’porno pants.”

The outfit turned out to be a pair of jeans with the backside
cut out, except for a thin strip of material down the middle.

The man told officers he had been stripping at a private party
in nearby Murray, and wanted to stop at a convenience store to see
how people would react. The folks in the store weren’t amused
and called authorities. Then, the man found out what police thought
when he was arrested for lewd behavior.

Didn’t even know Guinness had a name for
that

MAQUOKETA, Iowa ““ A scuba diver who also owns a pumpkin
patch said he hopes he broke the world record for underwater
pumpkin carving with a stunt he successfully completed Sunday.

Mike Frantz wrestled underwater with 1,028-pound pumpkin near
this eastern Iowa town in an attempt to break a Guinness World
Records title.

The 28-year-old Walcott man squeezed into scuba gear and carved
the mammoth pumpkin under 17 feet of water at a rock quarry. Frantz
thinks he broke the current record, which he said was set when a
955-pound pumpkin was carved last year.

Briefs compiled from Daily Bruin wire reports.