A singing parrot that does a dead-on impersonation of Ethel Merman has cut her first CD.
“Bird Beat,” by a yellow-headed Amazon parrot named Carla, was released this month by the Los Angeles record label Laurel Canyon.
Producers Skip Haynes and Dana Walden, who wrote the songs, say Carla’s favorite is called “Zippety-do-dah, I’m a green chicken.”
Haynes, who’s worked with the Grateful Dead and Bonnie Raitt, said, “She was pretty cool. She did the whole session in just two takes and about 17 minutes – including warm-up.”
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A client whose lawyer allegedly put her across his knee and spanked her bare bottom has lost a claim for $250,000 compensation.
The lawyer, from Ansonia, Conn., allegedly spanked the woman to stop her from fidgeting before appearing in court, in an effort to make her testimony more believable.
The lawyer agreed to a $250,000 settlement, but then claimed he had no assets, so the woman claimed the cash from his insurers.
But U.S. District Judge Robert Chatigny said spanking isn’t covered by lawyers’ malpractice-insurance policies – even for acts to “prepare” a client to testify.
The Connecticut Law Tribune said the ruling “is certain to make the legal system the butt of more jokes.”
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A Massachusetts police officer saved Cinnamon the pit bull’s life by giving her mouth-to-mouth after a car hit the pooch.
Officer Thomas Richmond says Cinnamon’s heart had stopped when he arrived at the scene of the accident in West Bridgewater.
“All four of her legs went out and her heart wasn’t beating. She was dead,” Richmond said.
After he began CPR – pressing her chest and breathing into her mouth – “to my amazement, she opened her eyes and started breathing,” he said.
“It’s a miracle.”
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A 22-year-old upstate woman found guilty of trespassing won’t go to prison – if she writes an essay instead.
Nicole Vathy, who is pregnant, was convicted of second-degree criminal trespass for entering the home of another woman.
In sentencing her to three years’ probation, Judge William Watson in Lockport, N.Y., ordered her to write a paper eight to 10 pages long on how to raise children. (s, lcf)
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A homeless Nebraska man with a cell phone helped cops catch a pair of cigarette thieves.
The man called police in Lincoln to say he’d seen two men break the front window of a shop and then go inside, Officer Katherine Finnell said.
Officers found two men carrying a plastic tub filled with cigarettes and arrested them on suspicion of burglary.
“I can’t recall another transient with a cell phone helping us solve a crime in circumstances like this,” said Lincoln Police Chief Tom Casady. “It just goes to show you how much our culture has changed.” (m)