This Soviet Archivist Well-Versed

--Alexander Afanasyev, an archivist rummaging through old papers at Moscow’s History Museum, has uncovered a national treasure: an unpublished and previously unknown poem written by Alexander Pushkin, Russia’s most revered poet, the Tass news agency reported. The poem entitled “Coquette” was scribbled in Pushkin’s bold and distinctive handwriting and was dated Jan. 23, 1834. The poem, described as light verse, tells of a flirtatious woman whose vanity leads her to seek the attentions of men. Pushkin, whose work is admired by Communist Party leaders and dissidents alike, was killed in 1837 in a duel with French Baron George-Charles D’Antes. Pushkin had accused the baron of flirting with his wife, who was said to be a bit of a coquette herself.

--Steve’s luck may have run out, but before he died the mixed-breed cat helped his Belleville, Mich., owners pick the winning numbers in a lottery jackpot worth more than $730,000. When Steve was a kitten, James P. Ford and his wife, Gretchen, wrote the numbers 1 through 40 on slips of paper and scattered them over the floor. They retrieved the first six slips taken by Steve and continuously played those numbers in the Michigan Lotto. Steve’s system outlasted Steve, whose nine lives ran out about nine months ago. But the numbers--1, 10, 26, 30, 35, 37--finally clicked, and the Fords won a kitty totaling $732,949.

--When a federal judge in Pittsburgh ordered John Gagliardi to stop suing people, the contentious Gagliardi did just what you might expect--he sued the judge. U.S. District Judge Donald Ziegler issued an order preventing Gagliardi from suing anyone else in federal court without the judge’s approval after Gagliardi filed no less than seven lawsuits against more than 60 people in the space of six months. His suits accused Pennsylvania and federal officials of conspiring with Bell of Pennsylvania to overcharge the public. Ziegler termed Gagliardi’s suits frivolous, vague and harassing. Gagliardi’s suit against Ziegler and Clerk of Courts Catherine Martrano contends he has been denied his constitutional right to sue. Ziegler, who is immune from lawsuits as a federal judge, allowed the suit to be filed.

--Danish journalist Marcus Mandal claims he has beaten his own previous world record in snowball juggling. Mandal said he juggled three snowballs in his bare hands for 17 minutes, 10 seconds, beating his previous time--recorded in the Guinness Book of World Records--of 16 minutes, 55 seconds. “Your fingers freeze and after a certain time you feel nothing at all,” said Mandal, who performed his numbing feat in Copenhagen.