Sorry, Wrong Number Drops Anchor at Army’s Door

--Only one digit was wrong. But that digit made the difference between a $6.04 incandescent lamp and a 14,500-pound anchor, which is now sitting in a shipping yard at Ft. Carson, near Colorado Springs, Colo. An Army clerk requisitioned the lamp--or tried to--by typing the order number into his computer. He should have typed 2040-00-368-4972. Alas, he really typed 2040-00-368-4772, said Maj. Tom Barnum, a spokesman for the Army post. That is the number for “anchor, marine fluke,” which costs $28,560. The anchor arrived March 25, causing quite a stir. “Someone astutely observed that it was not a lamp and it was sent back to installation supply,” Barnum said. “The status right now is that it’s in our shipping yard, awaiting disposition instructions.”

--When Greene County Sheriff Willie Morris didn’t get enough money to finance a drug investigation from Virginia officials, he cooked up a private fund-raising scheme: bake sales. “They’re bringing cakes, pies and cupcakes,” he said. “Several ladies have told us they are going to bring all sorts of goodies here. We’re very impressed with the amount we have collected.” Morris refused to say how much he has raised, but said public response has been “unbelievable.” His seven-man department has only a $1,000 appropriation this year for all investigations--an amount Morris calls “absurd,” even in his tiny county. He said he plans another bake sale soon. “I’m going to find other ways to generate money. . . . I intend to curtail the influx of drugs in this county.”

--Michigan State University students identified Galileo as an opera singer and the painter Rubens as a sandwich. They thought that Mao Tse-tung was a Buddhist leader, that Picasso painted Rome’s Sistine Chapel and that architect Frank Lloyd Wright was either an author or one of the first men to fly. In a three-year survey, 256 students at the East Lansing school were given a list of 132 important names, dates and places in history. They were asked to select and describe the items they recognized. Upperclassmen correctly identified 25 items, freshmen, 18. The discouraging results led English professor Clifton Burhans, who conducted the survey, to suggest that for many, a college education is “a colossal waste of time.”