Quick Takes

Life tonic?

Want to live to 110 years old? Agnes Fenton of Englewood, N.J., has a unique prescription. The elderly woman who celebrated her 110th birthday in August ascribed her longevity to a strict routine of three Miller High Life beers and one glass of whiskey every day. Doctors do not recommend Fenton’s routine and have advised her against it, but she says she plans to continue the 70-year habit.

English hospitality

Police near Manchester, United Kingdom, took a sensible approach to an unusual emergency call on Nov. 10. An elderly couple dialed police to report their problem to an emergency operator: They were lonely. Rather than punish Fred Thomson or his 95-year-old wife Doris for a frivolous call, officers Stu Ockwell and Andy Richardson paid a house call to the nonagenarians just to visit. “What else could we do but make them a brew [of tea] and have a chat,” an officer with the Greater Manchester Police Middleton reported on a Twitter feed. Thomson later told the BBC he was touched by the visit, saying he felt as if he had been “locked off from everything.”

Deadly livestock

Britons beware: According to the United Kingdom’s official health and safety bureaucracy, cows are the nation’s most dangerous large animal. According to a recent report from the Health and Safety Executive, 74 human deaths have been due to cattle over the past 15 years. The rash of tramplings and crushings makes British cows more dangerous than dogs, which caused 17 deaths from 2005 to 2013.

Talented pup

A famous skateboarder died on Oct. 27 at the age of 10. Tillman, an English bulldog, became a YouTube sensation in 2007 when a video of him skateboarding around a park went viral. Owner Ron Davis also taught Tillman how to snowboard and surf, and the dog appeared in a Hallmark Channel reality television series. Tillman had suffered from an irregular heartbeat and reportedly died after a bout of labored breathing. Tillman, said Davis, “was a little 60-pound butterball of inspiration for a lot of people.”

Name that candidate

Former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley has had trouble finding traction in his primary campaign to become the Democratic nominee for president. The floundering candidate received no help from The Wall Street Journal on Nov. 5 when the newspaper referred to him as “an unidentified man” in a photo caption. The photo showed O’Malley with two other well-known candidates. The caption read, “Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders and an unidentified man backstage at the Iowa Jefferson-Jackson Dinner.” The Journal’s editorial page editor Paul Gigot told The Washington Post the dig at the low-polling candidate was intentional.

Surprise parenting

Judy Brown arrived at Beverly Hospital outside of Boston complaining of severe abdominal pain on Nov. 7. She left a few hours later having just delivered an 8-pound baby girl. The 47-year-old woman claims she had no idea she had been pregnant until hospital officials told her in the emergency room. Brown said she attributed the weight gain to growing older and had mentally ruled out pregnancy for the same reason. The child, named Carolyn Rose, is the first for Brown and her husband of 22 years.

Back to the zoo

After two months on the run, a rogue emu that had escaped from a petting zoo in Clayton, Del., is finally in custody. The flightless bird, which had escaped the 3 Palms Petting Zoo in September, caused two separate school lockdowns in nearby communities when it appeared on the grounds of two elementary schools. In November, authorities received an increasing number of complaints from motorists who came close to running over the 6-foot-tall, 95-pound bird. But animal control officials and Delaware State Police reportedly cornered and captured the bird on Nov. 8 at a housing development outside of Odessa, Del.

Scissors and sight

A Massachusetts agency has awarded a $100,000 settlement to a blind barber after he said his firing from a barbershop was discriminatory under state law. Joel Nixon lost his job at Tony’s Barber Shop in Norton, Mass., in 2012 after his boss, Tony Morales, observed him tripping over a customer and chairs. On Nov. 7, the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination announced it had awarded Nixon a judgment of $75,000 for lost wages plus $25,000 for emotional distress, saying Morales had discriminated against Nixon for his blindness when he terminated the barber. According to the legally blind Nixon, he suffers from a hereditary condition that significantly lessens his peripheral and night vision.

Corporate turnover

Alex Thorne doesn’t want to grow up. He’s the Toys “R” Us kid. But when Alex turns 14 this December, he’ll have to retire his position as the toy retailer’s Chief Play Officer as per company rules. The Canadian boy took the position as Toys “R” Us CPO three years ago and has been testing toys for the retailer ever since. And though he doesn’t want to, Alex will now have to prepare for his next big test—high school. “I’m kind of sad that I’m leaving this job,” Alex admitted to the CBC. “I can’t keep this job forever. I can’t hog the awesomeness of this job.”