Ex-Outlaws Get Alarming News: They’ll Go to Blazes

--Alexandria’s banished volunteer fire company, which claims that George Washington organized it in 1774 and was once a member, may soon be answering alarms for the first time in five years, its president said. The volunteers, who once supplemented the Virginia city’s paid firefighting force, were outlawed in 1981 in a dispute with the city’s previous fire chief and city manager over who was boss. A proposal recently worked out with the new city manager, Vola Lawson, allows volunteers to attain varying levels of training to perform a variety of duties, from actual firefighting to serving as medical technicians and running a coffee wagon at a big blaze. “I think it’s George Washington’s ghost at work,” said Thomas Johnson, president of the small band of several dozen volunteers.

--Purdue University is banning the “Nude Olympics,” President Steven C. Beering said. “When you’ve got 300 people running around stark naked at minus 50 degrees, you run the major risk of frostbite and losing tips of noses, fingers, genitalia, breasts, toes and so on.” It also presents an improper image of the Big 10 school in West Lafayette, Ind., Beering added. The event started as a prank by male students in the late 1950s when “streaking” was a fad. Since then it has become a wintertime tradition for both men and women students, who shuck their clothes for an impromptu race around Cary Quad square. The event, which is not scheduled ahead of time, occurs late at night and generally on one of the coldest days of the winter. Thousands of people line the perimeter of the square to cheer on the contestants, who usually have been primed with alcohol to serve as antifreeze.

--A Vietnamese refugee who went on a pasta-rich diet and did special exercises has added enough flesh to his buttocks to qualify for flight training, Navy officials said. Hung Dinh Vu, 24, who stands 5 feet, 5 inches tall and weighs 140 pounds, last year came up three-tenths of an inch short in upper leg length, measured from the back of the buttocks to the inside of the knee while seated in a special chair. The purpose is to make sure a pilot’s feet reach rudder pedals and his legs rest flat against his ejection seat for safety in ejecting from crippled aircraft. But for Monday’s measurement, Vu made the minimum of 21.9 inches with a tenth of an inch to spare. “I feel taller,” Vu said with a smile. “I’m high on life. It’s made my year.”