They’re Waltzing Into the Marriage Offices in Vienna

--A lot of Austrian couples are getting married while it still pays. Finance Minister Ferdinand Lacina announced in September that, as of Friday, he is abolishing a government grant of $650 to every first-time bride or groom. Ever since then, registry offices have been doing record business. “There’s just about time to slip the ring on the finger and for the registrar to congratulate them,” Statistical Office spokesman Kurt Bruendl said. Schlesingerplatz, Vienna’s top registry office, is marrying about five times as many people as normal for December. “We have (a wedding) every quarter of an hour without a break from 8 in the morning until closing time, and most people have to make do with the short form of the ceremony,” spokesman Joerg Hornberg said. The weddings should slow as soon as the New Year begins. “There are hardly any appointments in the first three months of next year,” said Roland Fuhs, who oversees all of Vienna’s registry offices.

--A dog named Bear is being treated like a hero at the Perkins home in New Haven, Vt. The pet, which is a cross between a collie and a Newfoundland, rescued 4-year-old Zeke Perkins from an icy pond after Zeke and his two sisters went ice skating near the Perkins farm. Zeke soon fell through the untested ice. The dog jumped into the pond and grabbed the boy’s clothes with its teeth and hauled him through the frigid water, Missy Perkins, Zeke’s mother, said. The sisters--Martha, 8, and Sarah, 7--both also fell through the ice, but they were able to pull themselves out. Then, they said, they helped Zeke wrap his hands around the dog’s tail for the final tug to shore. Zeke said he learned a lesson from the experience. “I learned that I shouldn’t go anywhere without Bear,” he said.

--Thomas A. Lombardo’s hopes for a busy holiday season have not been fulfilled. Lombardo, of Wenonah, N.J., placed a classified ad to offer free handyman help to the needy, but he received only two calls. “I’m hungry to help. But I guess people who really need the help, the poor, the elderly, the needy, don’t read the classified ads,” he said. Lombardo, 23, is a student at the Camden campus of Rutgers University and works nights at a restaurant. Responding to his first call, he went to the home of a visually impaired man who needed his fence repaired. Lombardo’s second call was from a woman who wanted help installing an oil heater.