News

You can't make this stuff up: Nancy Kerrigan's father dies, and her brother is charged with assault leading to his father's fatal collapse.
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The Misfits II: 1,068 wild horses are being held in Fallon.
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This is another puppy rescue, this time in a well:

Unlike the German shepherd that bit a firefighter who fished it out of the Los Angeles River last week in pouring rain, the puppy in Gorman was cooperative Sunday and patiently waited for a team of about a dozen firefighters to set it free, said Inspector Frederic Stowers of the L.A. County Fire Department.

“The hole the dog was trapped in was about 3- by 5-feet wide and about 24 feet deep,” Stowers said. “The dog was in good condition after being rescued and has been turned over to animal control.”

Authorities do not know exactly when or how the dog fell into the hole at North 300 Street and West Aqueduct Service Road. When rescuers arrived about 2:15 p.m. Sunday, the animal did not appear to be under distress, Stowers said.

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Picasso's paintings are certainly accident prone:

On Friday afternoon a woman taking an adult education class at the museum accidentally fell into “The Actor,” causing the tear. Officials at the museum said that since the damage did not occur “in the focal point of the composition,” they expected that the repair would be “unobtrusive,” according to a statement released on Sunday.

The accident recalled another human-canvas run-in involving a Picasso. In 2006 the Las Vegas casino owner Stephen A. Wynn put his elbow through “Le Rêve” (“The Dream”), a 1932 Picasso of the artist’s mistress Marie-Thérèse Walter, leaving a sizable hole that has been so artfully repaired that the untutored eye would never know such a fate had befallen it.

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It takes all kinds when it comes to running for California governor:

Could actress Zsa Zsa Gabor be California's next first lady?

That may seem implausible, but her ninth husband, Prince Frederic von Anhalt, a German-born socialite with no previous political experience, on Monday announced his own independent campaign to succeed Arnold Schwarzenegger as governor.

Von Anhalt, 65, launched his long-shot bid for office with a news conference in West Hollywood and the unveiling of a large billboard on the Sunset Strip, showing him smiling and dressed in a military-style coat adorned with various medals.

An in depth article about him and his wife is here. The article is mostly about him:

Born Hans Robert Lichtenberg in Wallhausen, Germany, he was the son of a police detective and was, he once admitted, the village troublemaker. But he discovered a noteworthy talent early on. "I always knew how to handle women," he says.

An avid sportsman, he befriended the son of Princess Marie Auguste of Anhalt, a member of the German nobility and daughter-in-law of Kaiser Wilhelm II. "We played soccer together," Frédéric says. "He moved to Chile and had a big horse ranch. All of a sudden he had a car accident and he died."

This left an intriguing vacancy in the hereditary-title department, and Frédéric was soon consoling his friend's bereaved mother. "The princess was all alone," he explains. "Because I knew she was lonely, I called her and took her out sometimes for dinner."

Did they ever have a romantic relationship? "No, no, no!" he exclaims. "She was an old lady. But she liked conversation."

His ministrations also included other favors. "She called me and said, 'My brother in Switzerland died.' I said, 'No problem, I take you down,'" Frédéric reports. "I did things like that. I didn't have any parents anymore, so one day she said, 'I'm going to adopt you. You'll be Royal Highness. You'll have the highest title in Germany—everybody's going to be jealous of you!'"

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