So Now the Mail’s Held in Leash

So a raging blizzard won’t stop the mail, but a 40-pound dog did. When a three-quarters pit bull terrier broke its leash and chased a mail carrier in a Seattle neighborhood, the Postal Service decided to put some teeth into protecting its workers and stopped delivery to the entire street. Residents snapped at that, but service won’t be resumed, the Postal Service said, until it knows its workers are safe. “We have to guarantee that the dog is not running loose,” said Lou Kush, acting carrier supervisor at the West Seattle station. “Our position is we don’t know if the dog will be off his leash, and we can’t endanger the carrier. We have all heard how dangerous pit bulls are.” Animal control officers say they can’t remove an animal from private property until neighbors sign a petition claiming the animal is a nuisance. “I’m plain mad,” said Eve Skibba, 73, who hasn’t had delivery since Oct. 25.

--The jobless in a once-bustling steel valley took matters into their own hands--and the result was a ballroom full of holiday ornaments, woodwork, ceramics and other handicrafts that bargain hunters snapped up to fill Christmas stockings. “It’s always better to work for what you get than to take a handout,” said Art Campbell Jr., 22, a laid-off computer programmer who sold about $54 worth of hooked rugs, beaded ornaments and candle mugs during the fair set up at Pittsburgh’s Soldiers & Sailors Memorial to allow the unemployed a chance to sell handmade wares. “It’s nice to come here instead of knocking on doors,” said Kathryn Gregorich, 44, an unemployed key punch operator who sold $200 worth of miniature cloth snowmen. The two-day fair was sponsored by Equitable Gas Co., which rented the ballroom and offered free space on a first-come basis to any unemployed worker or family member.

--After a Vermont man reported that a moose was courting an unwilling cow at his farm, the skeptical and the curious started coming in the thousands, and now “it’s like the World’s Fair,” said Larry Carrara, the owner of the ravishing bovine. Thousands of prying eyes have done nothing to cow the advances of the pining moose, who has been rebuffed so far. Although Carrara says the increased activity at his farm has him tuckered out, he finds the enthusiasm of the crowds invigorating. “To see the eyes of some of these kids and some of these people, it’s just great,” he said. “We’ve got people coming from convalescent homes wanting to see this.”