The Nays Won: So much for the...
The Nays Won: So much for the power of positive thinking. The Maharishi Mahesh Yogi has abandoned his decade-long effort to lower the District of Columbia’s crime rate though collective meditation. Instead, the Transcendental Meditation movement founder is telling followers who moved to the Washington area for the experiment to leave. “I would not advise anyone to stay in the pool of mud,” he told the Washington Post in a phone interview from headquarters in Vlodrop, the Netherlands.
Lease/Option: Christmas tree lovers in Waretown, N.J., have a new option--they can lease a tree. “I always thought it was crazy to cut trees and throw them away,” said Vicki Albert, who owns the 13-acre tree Wells Mills Road Tree Farm with her husband, Bob. About half their customers this year opted to lease, which costs $45 to $55 on average. Buying a tree costs $25 more. Trees are delivered by a worker dressed as an elf. After the holidays, workers will retrieve the trees for replanting at the farm.
Santa I: Santa and his reindeer may have slowed a bit in recent years, but they’re still about a hundred times faster than the blink of an eye, says Stephen Saupe of St. John’s University, in Collegeville, Minn. Saupe, a biology professor, recently updated his original calculations of Santa’s speed. Assuming a 12-hour trip to all children in North America and Europe whose families celebrate Christmas, he concluded that Santa has 0.00102 seconds, or 1.02 milliseconds, per house. But Saupe says he’s never seen Santa and doesn’t expect to, “because he’s too fast. . . .. If you blinked on Christmas Eve . . . you missed Santa.”
Santa II: In Grand Island, Neb., Stacey Engelbart thought it was strange that boyfriend Kirk Goodnight wanted to sit on Santa Claus’s knee. When Santa asked Engelbart what she wanted for Christmas, she was speechless. But Goodnight wasn’t. Dropping to one knee, he said, “I’d like Stacey to marry me for Christmas.” Engelbart, 21, managed to gasp “Yes” before Goodnight, 24, slipped a diamond ring on her finger. No wedding date has been set.