Commuter Has a Shower on a Bus

Sue Depot is a mother-to-be on the go. So it seemed only appropriate that the people who have shared her comings and goings should have a baby shower for her on the “the 5:15,” a commuter bus in South Kingstown, R.I. The shower guests first met on the bus and now they talk there about families and work. When the ride is over, they go home to Wakefield or Narragansett and never socialize with one another off the bus. Laurie Nelson, an insurance agent, and Jackie Corea came up with the idea for the shower a few weeks ago. Nelson made up invitations that said: “Everybody’s heard of bathrooms on airplanes, but how about a shower on a bus?” When Depot, 26, boarded the bus on her last day of work before beginning maternity leave, her friends yelled: “Surprise!” “Oh, I can’t wait to have them now,” said Depot, who is expecting twins, as she opened her presents.

--Some might think it is a half-baked notion, but a group of fourth-graders was able to convince New York’s Senate that the apple muffin should be declared the state’s official muffin. Two dozen members of Mary Craven’s class at the Bear Road School in North Syracuse distributed more than 100 fresh-baked muffins in Albany to senators of the apple-producing state before the unanimous vote. “It may not be the burning issue of the day, but it’s important,” said Sen. Paul Kehoe, who praised the muffins and the students’ powers of persuasion. “Despite the ridicule we’re going to get in the media, I want to congratulate these young people.” The muffin resolution is expected to come to a vote in the Assembly next week.

--Boise Cascade Corp. was so proud of the huge log that it hauled to its Horseshoe Bend, Ida., sawmill two weeks ago that the company left it outside as a temporary tourist attraction. But town residents quickly adopted the log, and they want Boise Cascade to keep it intact and on display. The log is 400 years old, weighs 20 tons, is 33 feet long, 6 feet 4 inches in diameter, is valued at $2,000 and could provide enough lumber to build three houses, the company said. “We’ve had a lot of tourists come and take pictures of it with their kids,” police Chief Chuck McConnell said. Backers of the preservation drive have gathered 185 petition signatures from the town’s 700 people. But company officers say the log still is likely to become lumber, although they might preserve a cross section to show its growth rings. “We have hundreds of logs going through there, but for some reason people have grown attached to this particular log,” said John Bender, manager of Boise Cascade’s Idaho region.