Beyonce photo captures grandmother ‘s star-struck reaction
Shrewsbury, Mass. (AP) – A Massachusetts grandmother worried that no one would believe her story of meeting Beyonce before the Grammys – until a picture of her star-struck reaction appeared on the singer’s Instagram page. The picture shows Beyonce and Jay-Z strolling down a hotel hallway past Shrewsbury resident Susan Monaghan, her mouth agape as she stands aside to let the celebrity couple pass. Monaghan tells the Boston Globe that all she could think as the singer smiled at her was, “No one is going to believe me.” Her daughter, Jenn Hiitt, confirms that she was skeptical of the story. But the next day, she got a text saying that Monaghan’s picture was circulating online. Monaghan says that seeing Beyonce’s smile felt like being “hugged by an angel.”
Philly cops use hydraulic fluid on poles to deter climbers
Philadelphia (AP) – While Philadelphia Eagles fans prepare for the Super Bowl, police are working to keep any victory celebrations firmly on the ground. The Philadelphia Inquirer reports that police officers were out Sunday afternoon rolling hydraulic fluid onto light poles to keep celebrating fans from climbing them in case of an Eagles victory. Officers who declined to give their names reported greasing about 100 poles up and down Broad Street. They dubbed themselves the “Pole Patrol” rather than the earlier “Crisco Cops” that applied shortening that failed to stop some fans after the NFC championship victory. Philadelphia’s police commissioner earlier vowed a safe but effective alternative before the big game. He said police had to assure the safety of fans “as well as the people who they could fall down on.”
German police hunt thieves who stole 44 tons of chocolate
Berlin (AP) – Police say two truck trailers loaded with 44 tonnes of chocolate were stolen in southern Germany and there’s no sign of the sticky-fingered perpetrators. Police said Monday the trailers packed with 400,000 euros worth of chocolate were stolen from an industrial park in Freiburg on Friday night. One was found Saturday hauled by a Polish truck that had stopped at a rest area near the German-French border. The driver fled on foot and the trailer was still full of the stolen chocolate. The second trailer was found in Lahr, also near the border with France. Two thirds of the chocolate – and the thief – were gone. Police say they’ve launched a search for the thieves and are appealing for any witnesses to come forward.
Connecticut paper claps back at Rhode Island paper’s dis
Providence, R.I. (AP) – The biggest newspapers in Connecticut and Rhode Island are feuding over which state is worse. The Hartford Courant in Connecticut wrote a scathing editorial after The Providence Journal in Rhode Island published an editorial calling its New England neighbor struggling, and blasting its business climate as enormously difficult. The Journal’s Jan. 24 piece ends by calling on Rhode Island Democratic Gov. Gina Raimondo to try and attract jobs from Connecticut to Rhode Island, calling it “certainly less risky” than Connecticut. In a Friday editorial headlined “Why, Rhode Island, Why?” the Courant responded by detailing a long list of its neighbor’s woes. Those included pension problems, economic issues and “a legacy of corruption that not even Connecticut can match.” It closes by encouraging the states to work together.
A lofty proposal: ‘Marry Me’ etched in snow, seen from above
Nevis, Minn. (AP) – An aviation student in northern Minnesota pulled off a sky-high marriage proposal by writing “Marry Me” in the snow, then flying his long-time girlfriend over his handiwork. Gavin Becker enlisted his family’s help to pen the life-changing question using a snow blower on the frozen Eight Crow Wing Lake near Nevis. Ed Becker, Gavin’s father, tells KARE-TV that it took about 4½ hours to create the 25-foot-tall (7.5-meter-tall) letters and a huge heart. Gavin Becker, a University of North Dakota aviation student, then rented a plane and took his high-school sweetheart, Olivia Toft, for a trip over the lake Sunday. Toft, realizing it was snow joke, told him “yes.”
