offbeat
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LEWISTON, Idaho (AP) — A man says he reached down to pick up a stick lying in the gardening aisle of a Wal-Mart in eastern Washington state, only to discover that it was a rattlesnake that then bit his hand.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — No matter how much digging investigators did, the crime remained open until a thief turned himself in and returned the fruits of his theft.
PARKLAND, Fla. (AP) — The author of a book called "Shades of Gray" says her work is being confused with that of a chart-topping erotic fiction writer.
Some New Jersey parents are steamed about a question on a statewide standardized test this week that asked some third-graders to write about a secret and why it was hard to keep.
MIDDLETOWN, Conn. (AP) — Officials say a fire alarm that went off at a Connecticut high school was activated by a student's "overabundance" of body spray in a locker room.
PHOENIX (AP) — A suburban Phoenix man made a lucky, lucky, lucky, lucky, lucky, lucky guess in a recent multistate lottery game.
GRANTS PASS, Ore. (AP) — A young male wolf from Oregon that has won worldwide fame while trekking across mountains, deserts and highways looking for a mate has had what appears to be his first close encounter with people, and got his picture taken, to boot.
MILWAUKEE (AP) — You could call it a cautionary tale about what can go wrong when high school students exert too much "pier pressure."
HOLLYWOOD, Fla. (AP) — The cheap signs smashed into lawns and along the corners of busy intersections are hard to miss. "We Buy Junk Cars!" ''Cash for Your House!" ''Computer Repair." The eyesores have vexed Hollywood Mayor Peter Bober for the past few years as he wastes valuable resources plucking up the signs only to watch them pop up in even greater numbers.
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Charles Baird is going off the grid for a year.
