Some ca-razy stuff...

Man wins $25,000 lottery two days in row

Fri Feb 16, 3:59 PM ET

MAPLEWOOD, Minn. - An airline pilot from Maplewood won a $25,000 lottery jackpot - two days in a row. Raymond Snouffer Jr. matched the winning numbers 11-14-23-26-31 to win Saturday's Northstar Cash drawing with odds of about 170,000 to 1, Minnesota Lottery officials said.

On Sunday, Snouffer stuck with 11 and switched to 3-7-19-28 - and won again.

Lottery officials said such a sequence was so farfetched that the odds against it were "virtually incalculable."

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Information from: Star Tribune, http://www.startribune.com

Eek!: Men flee after seeing 'giant rat'

Fri Feb 16, 9:58 PM ET

VIRGINIA, Minn. - A furry, uninvited guest had manly men at an Iron Range tire shop shrieking and hopping on desks. "It was pretty humorous," said conservation officer Dan Starr, who filed a report on the critter's break-in. "Here were these big, burly outdoors guys running around screaming." Taconite Tire employees arrived at work on Monday to find what they thought was a giant rat inside the store.

"I was the first one into work that morning and the first one out," said Shannon Bergman, an off-road tire salesman. "I walked in, and in the waiting area I saw this big rat, and I took off."

Mayhem ensued.

After scampering out the front door, Bergman called a buddy and told him to bring a rifle to dispatch the critter.

On edge, employees stalked the "rat," entering the office where it was hold up.

"We're looking around in the office and a box falls, and I must have jumped a foot," said Bob Dethloff, a brawny alignment specialist and stock car racer. "I thought it was going to attack me from behind."

Dethloff's son, Ryan, a mechanic at the shop, was armed with a broomstick.

All of a sudden, he spotted the "rat."

"Ryan comes out of the office screaming, and he says, 'It's huge!'" Bergman said. "It was the size of a cat."

"I guess he jumped on top of a desk and screamed like a girl who had seen a mouse," Starr said of Ryan Dethloff.

In the end, an employee shot and killed what turned out to be a muskrat.

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Information from: Duluth News Tribune, http://www.duluthsuperior.com

Porn star seeks fame with clothes on

By Richard Leong

Fri Feb 16, 8:13 AM ET

Adult film star Ron Jeremy poses for photos in New York City February 7, 2007. Porn star Jeremy wants to be taken seriously with his clothes on, with his new found mainstream appeal from reality television. (Brendan McDermid/Reuters) Email Photo Print Photo

NEW YORK CITY(Reuters) - Porn star Ron Jeremy wants to be taken seriously -- with his clothes on.

Dressed in a dark track suit with a protruding belly that shows he is past his physical prime, Jeremy hardly strikes you as one of the most successful American porn stars.

But Jeremy, 53, who claims to have been with more than 4,000 women during a 30-year career, is the first to admit that he is not your stereotypical sex star. He believes his average looks are a key to his success.

In a new memoir, "Ron Jeremy: The Hardest (Working) Man in Showbiz," he said audiences identified with him because he was just like them -- hairy, with a mustache and standing just 5 feet 6 inches tall.

"They look at themselves in the mirror and think, Y'know, compared to Ron Jeremy, I'm not that bad looking at all," Jeremy says in the book released this month.

Jeremy, who trained to be a teacher, started out as an actor in New York in the mid-1970s but ended up in porn films to make some money after his girlfriend sent off some nude photographs of him to Playgirl. He never looked back.

But with more than 1,750 adult films to his name and turning 54 next month, Jeremy had few Hollywood directors knocking at his door.

Jeremy turned to reality TV, joining the second season of "The Surreal Life," which features a group of low-level celebrities living in a mansion in Los Angeles.

"It increased my audience. A lot of women and children now know me from the show," said Jeremy. "Now I'm getting more work."

Jeremy, who was born Ron Jeremy Hyatt, can be seen in a spinoff of that series, "The Surreal Life: Fame Games," and had a role in the comedy "Finishing the Game," which screened at the Sundance Film Festival in January.

In addition to his book, Jeremy is busy with other ventures -- his adult film company, speaking on television and college campuses about sex and pornography, and promotional appearances for products that carry his name.

But more than ever, he is driven to seize those elusive Hollywood roles. "It's a certain amount of ego," he said. "In my little cloud, I still think I'm an actor."

Would he like to do more reality television?

"To me, porn and reality TV are similar. I don't mind being in them," he said. "I just can't stand watching them."

Tiny duckling has rare mutation: 4 legs

Sun Feb 18, 7:07 AM ET

Stumpy, a four-legged duckling at Warrawee Duck Farm, Copythorne, Hampshire, England, Saturday Feb. 17, 2007. A rare mutation has left the bird with two legs behind the usual two. (AP Photo/PA, Barry Batchelor)

LONDON - Webbed feet run in Stumpy's family, but a rare mutation has left the eight-day-old duckling with two nearly full-sized legs behind the two he runs on.

Nicky Janaway, a duck farmer in New Forest, Hampshire, 95 miles southwest of London, unveiled the duckling to reporters on Saturday.

"It was absolutely bizarre. I was thinking 'he's got too many legs' and I kept counting 'one, two, three, four,'" Janaway said.

Stumpy would probably not survive in the wild, but Janaway, who runs the Warrawee Duck Farm in New Forest says he is doing well.

"He's eating and surviving so far and he is running about with those extra legs acting like stabilizers," Janaway said.

The mutation is rare, but cases have been recorded across the world. One duckling named Jake was born in Queensland, Australia, in 2002 with four legs but died soon after.