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I don't watch America's Top Model, but reading the news I see that Whitney Thompson won the title for the reality television show.

My first reaction, was that if that's what "Plus Sized" is - i'm all for it. She's gorgeous, and i'm all for her shapley figure.

I mention to a friend of mine about this over email, and she sends me an email from her friend which says:

"The source is this wonderfully chatty boy in one of my classes...who says he went to high school with Whitney. The claim is that Whitney did not try out for top model but was approached on a plane by someone from the show. She was already doing modeling as a size 2 or 4 but because she was closer to a 4 she was a little too big for the show as a regular model. They told her that if she went and gained 10-20 pounds they would definitely put her on the show as "the plus-size model". She's about a 6 or 8 on the show. He even showed us this picture of her when she was smaller which was from a year ago.

This is her as a size 2/4:

This is her as a size 6/8":

That was all I got from the email.

Now, who knows if that email is accurate, or if it is bogus. Could be like those chain emails that get forwarded by my family & friends before they check snopes.com.

It wouldn't shock me if it was true. It also wouldn't shock me if the email from our mystery student was a hoax.

I really don't care either way. I think it's good for the kids to see that you don't have to be stick thin to be a model.

Someone from the NY Times emailed me about the syrup story I wrote about a few weeks ago. He is getting information from everyone he can, and writing a story about it for the newspaper. Jen Chung from The Gothamist directed him my way, and he emailed me his name and phone number to talk about the story. We chatted for about 15 minutes and he asked if I knew anyone else who smelled the syrupy smell on Dec 15th.

If you did - email me and I will forward on your information to him. Also he said that if you wanted to be anonymous, that was ok also. He is just trying to get information for his story of times, places and dates when people smelled it.

Also he thinks it is from anti-freeze - score for The Blonde! Also he noted that all the days that people smelled it were on Thursdays. Interesting.

Sadly, i'm also going to get "outed" for the story. No, not in a Christopher street kind of "outed", but my nom de plume of "Furey" will evaporate because he is, gulp, using my real name for the story. I asked if he could use Furey and i'm sure I could hear him rolling his eyes from other other end of the telephone when he said, "No."

Oh well. Such is the price for investigative reporting!

My sister sent me this...

NAIROBI (AFP) - A baby hippopotamus that survived the tsunami waves on the Kenyan coast has formed a strong bond with a giant male century-old tortoise, in an animal facility in the port city of Mombassa, officials said.

The hippopotamus, nicknamed Owen and weighing about 300 kilograms (650 pounds), was swept down Sabaki River into the Indian Ocean, then forced back to shore when tsunami waves struck the Kenyan coast on December 26, before wildlife rangers rescued him.

"It is incredible. A-less-than-a-year-old hippo has adopted a male tortoise, about a century old, and the tortoise seems to be very happy with being a 'mother'," ecologist Paula Kahumbu, who is in charge of Lafarge Park, told AFP.

"After it was swept and lost its mother, the hippo was traumatized. It had to look for something to be a surrogate mother. Fortunately, it landed on the tortoise and established a strong bond. They swim, eat and sleep together," the ecologist added.

"The hippo follows the tortoise exactly the way it follows its mother. If somebody approaches the tortoise, the hippo becomes aggressive, as if protecting its biological mother," Kahumbu added.

"The hippo is a young baby, he was left at a very tender age and by nature, hippos are social animals that like to stay with their mothers for four years," he explained.

Ah, the great outdoors. The beautiful country view. The crisp mountain air. The moose hanging from his antlers on a power line?!

Yep, this is a real shot, from a news story about a poor bull moose who got frisky with a power line. From what they gather, there were engineers in the hills stringing new power lines. The poles are first put up, and the lay the power cables, which are loose and slack. When the cables are strung, they tighten the cables, which rise from the ground and then are taut across the poles. In a bizarre twist of fate, somehow this moose was at the wrong place at the wrong time and got his antlers tangled up in the power lines!

I'm sure the moose must be up there thinking:

You ever have one of those days? You know, when you are out in the forest, in full rut, and just hoping to get some action? I had to tangle with frigging power lines (no pun intended)! Great, now what the hell do I do?! Hello, anyone there? Fellas? Ok, joke's over! Ha, ha. Very funny, guys. Let me down, now!

I decided to post this picture on the message board, and ask for some comments on what the chatters thought was the best caption for the picture.

Award goes to poster "Nefarious Cube" for the title of this entry. Had me laughing all day at work (Ok, he wasn't an elk, but it was still funny). Think you have a better caption for this picture? Considering that only three people read this page, leave a comment and lets see who can beat that!