QUIRKY WORLD ... A daily look at some of the world’s stranger stories
Talk about a marriage proposal to remember.
An Oklahoma man proposed to his girlfriend while an officer tried to arrest him on two outstanding warrants.
An officer spotted Justin Harrel of Elk City in a local park and discovered that he had outstanding warrants out of two counties for obtaining cash or merchandise by bogus cheques, according to court documents. Police said Harrel resisted arrest at first.
“I advised Justin that he was under arrest and directed him to turn around and place his hands behind his back,” the officer wrote in his police report. “Justin said: ‘Steve, let’s talk about this. Give me five minutes.’ ”
When the officer took him into custody, Harrel explained that he was about to propose to his girlfriend. He asked if he could go ahead with the proposal.
The officer allowed Harrel to complete the proposal, and Harrel’s girlfriend eventually said yes. Harrel then asked the officer to get the engagement ring from his coat pocket and give it to her.
The officer handed the ring to the girlfriend.
Harrel was not cited for resisting an officer.
Chefs have created what they believe is the largest Christmas cake ever baked in Britain.
Measuring a massive 5.5m by 2.7ft and weighing 700kg, the iced fruit cake took seven days to make. Ten chefs used ingredients including 1,400 eggs, 50kg of flour and sugar and numerous cherries and raisins to create the cake. A further 180kg of chocolate was used to make the edible decorations.
Chef Darshan Choudhari, who works at Red Hot World Buffet in Nottingham, said: “I’m really pleased with it. I couldn’t have done it without the team. It took three weeks to plan and we’ve worked on it for the last seven days.”
When it comes to phrases that annoy, it looks like it’s “whatever” forever.
Americans considered “whatever” to be the most annoying word or phrase in conversation for a fifth straight year, according to pollsters at Marist College in New York state: 38% of adults polled said “whatever” was most annoying in conversation, followed by “like” at 22% and “you know” at 18%.
Bringing up the rear were “just sayin” and “obviously”. The telephone poll questioned 1,173 adults.
A woman is suing a deli after drinking bottled water that allegedly contained semen, lawyers said, with claims that DNA showed it matched the owner of the business.
Alicia Cooper has filed a writ of summons in the District Court of Western Australia against the owner, who no longer runs the business, according to media reports that were confirmed by Slater and Gordon, the legal firm representing Cooper.
Among its accusations, the writ states that the owner knowingly placed the sperm in the bottled water and allowed its sale.
Today is the shortest day of the year — but the outlook is brighter for sufferers of seasonal depression in one US city.
Brightness is now on tap at one bar in Portland, Oregon. The booths at Lightbar include light-therapy lamps that can be dialled up to 10,000 lux, the recommended dosage for those with seasonal affective disorder.
The condition known as SAD is more common in the perpetually cloudy Pacific Northwest — as well as in other northern areas — because it is triggered by long winter evenings that have people waking up in the dark.
A Seattle cafe owner started offering light therapy this autumn after learning of Lightbar.
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