Saucy Governor’s a Real Card

Friends of Arizona Gov. Rose Mofford never know what historical or mythical character she will assume on her holiday cards. In the past, she has sent greetings as Uncle Sam, Santa Claus, the Statue of Liberty and even Mae West. This year, she chose to be depicted as a saucy Goddess of Liberty, the winged statue atop the Capitol dome in Phoenix. The card shows a smiling caricature of the 65-year-old beehive-coiffed Democrat poking a bare leg from a white Roman toga slit up the side. “Rose liked it. I showed a little knee,” said Sherman Goodrich, the San Diego artist who has been designing her cards for 10 years. “She’s a sexy lady. What the hell?” The message inside the card reads: “Seasons Greetings, and my heartfelt thanks for your help and trust in this my first year as governor of the great state of Arizona.” Mofford was secretary of state until succeeding Evan Mecham, the controversial first-term Republican who was impeached last April.

--Five Delray Beach, Fla., couples are $28.6 million richer after deciding to buy a lottery ticket while sharing a 99-cent breakfast special. The “Cheapskate Breakfast Couples” have met for breakfast every week for the last six years to escape the weekly spraying for pests at their condominium complex. They decided to purchase 11 lottery tickets together after one of them complained that he needed money to have a tooth fixed. Carl and Mary Anderson, Octavio and Josephine Caruso, Edward and Augustine Fiume, Luke and Marion Lomartire, and James and Artea Molinari will receive about $230,000 per couple a year after taxes for the next 20 years. Until they decide what to do with their winnings, they will take a cruise--together, of course--to talk it over.

--Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. Municipal Court Judge George T. Choppelas said so after a rollicking 90-minute court session in San Francisco’s mock Court of Historical Review and Appeals to consider the question: “Is there really a Santa Claus?” Evidence included testimony from U.S. Post Office Communications Specialist Alan Wald, who said no mail addressed to Santa was ever “returned to sender” as undeliverable. The bearded, rosy-cheeked gentleman in red even took to the witness stand himself and testified: “Ho ho ho.” Choppelas said he was drawing partly on legal precedent set in the movie “Miracle on 34th Street,” in which a New York court found for the defendant, Santa Claus. “As long as there is love and generosity and gift-giving,” Choppelas said, “this court is going to find that there really, really is a Santa Claus.”