In 1970 a young girl lost her banana-seat bike. Lisa Brown was riding it across a rickety bridge in Cape Cod, Mass., when she and the bike tumbled into a little river. The bike sank into the muck and was gone.

Until, that is, the now adult Brown's wife, Deirdre Oringer, came across a rusted bike — banana seat and all — in the woods near where Brown's two-wheeler went into the Herring River.

That discovery happened nearly a year ago, as the Cape Cod Times reported last June, and as it "dramatically" recounted in this quite funny video.

So why mention it now?

Because it seems that Britain's Daily Mail just discovered the story and decided that the headline should be:

" 'It was like finding a long lost friend': Lesbian reunited with bike she lost FOUR DECADES ago after her wife spots it in muddy stream."

As Gawker, which is having some fun at the Mail's expense, says: "What will the lesbians do next?"

Update at 2:05 p.m. ET: Our friend Bill Chappell reminds us of the post he did last October about a man who was reunited with his racing bike after 26 years.

No, the Unabomber won't be attending his 50th class reunion at Harvard this week.

But Ted Kaczynski has updated his former classmates about what he's been up to all these years.

In something that's become a bit of an embarrassment for Harvard Alumni Association, The Associated Press writes that "in an alumni directory, [Kaczynski] lists his occupation as 'prisoner' and says his awards are 'Eight life sentences, issued by the United States District Court for the Eastern District of California, 1998.' "

The alumni association issued a statement last night saying "we regret publishing Kaczynski's references to his convictions and apologize for any distress that it may have caused others."

A mathematician by training, Kaczynski killed three people and injured 23, as the AP reminds us, "during a nationwide bombing spree between 1978 and 1995."

As he tells his former classmates, he's now residing at the so-called Supermax federal prison in Florence, Colo.

Kaczynski, 70, is federal prisoner No. 04475-046.

Meanwhile, if those from Harvard's Class of '62 want to soothe their nerves they can always check out their "50th Anniversary Report" website, which has some nice music from back in the day (think, Memories).

Officials in Beijing have ruled that public restrooms in the Chinese capital can have no more than two flies in them at one time, the BBC reports.

New rules issued Monday by the Beijing Municipal Commission of City Administration and Environment also regulate ads within the bathrooms and state that no more than two pieces of trash can be left uncollected for more than a half-hour.

The rules apply to bathrooms in tourist spots such as parks, railway stations, supermarkets and malls.

The "two-fly rule" was instituted as a way to clean up the toilets, which are said to be notoriously filthy. According to China Daily, the rules are not compulsory and are intended only to improve sanitation.

It's unknown how the cleaner toilets will compare to Japan's "biggest public toilet in the world," which Mark wrote about earlier this month.

"That's just crazy," Cincinnati Reds fan Caleb Lloyd said Monday night after he ended up snagging two home runs balls — from consecutive batters — during the Reds' 4-1 win over the visiting Atlanta Braves.

MLB.com has video of the highly unlikely events. It was the fourth inning, and the first ball to come toward Lloyd, sitting just above the wall in left-center field, was hit by the Reds' Mike Leake. It was the pitcher's first-ever home run.

Lloyd, a 20-year-old college student, caught the ball barehanded. "It hurt really bad," he said with a smile after the game.

The next batter up, Reds shortstop Zack Cozart, launched another ball Lloyd's way. That one landed behind Lloyd and then bounced into his lap.

And that, as Lloyd said later, was just crazy.

Lloyd, who says he'd never caught a ball before at a game, gave the first ball to Leake. He wanted the pitcher to have it since it was Leake's first homer. Lloyd gave the second ball to the friend he went to the game with, since the buddy's uncle had gotten them the tickets.

Now, he says, he's hoping for a call from one of the late night comedy shows. Dave? Jay? Conan? Anbody interested?

Update at 3 p.m. ET. His Best Time Ever:

Lloyd told NPR's Robert Siegel this afternoon that when the second ball headed his way, he couldn't believe what was happening. "Am I actually going to catch two home run balls?" he wondered. Grabbing that one, Lloyd said, made it "the best time I've ever had in my entire life."

Tonight, by the way, he's headed back to the ballpark. The Reds have said he'll be their honorary captain for the evening, Lloyd told Robert.

Much more from their conversation will be on today's All Things Considered. Click here to find an NPR station that broadcasts or streams the show. Later, we'll add the as-broadcast version of the conversation to the top of this post.

When she hit the tape Sunday at the Powerade Great City Games in Manchester, England, Britain's Jessica Ennis hadn't only beaten Olympic heptathlon champion Dawn Harper.

Ennis had also run a personal best 12.75 seconds in the 100-meter hurdles — 0.04 of a second faster than she'd ever run that race.

It was her personal best, that is, until 2004 Olympic heptathlon bronze medalist Kelly Sotherton, also of the U.K., tweeted this question:

"That 100mh was great but I'm sure that there was only 9 hurdles not 10. Please someone verify!"

Sure enough, when organizers went back to check they realized "they had neglected to set up the 10th hurdle, leaving the athletes with an extra-long run-off to the finish line," as The Telegraph writes. So, no personal record.

Ennis, a 26-year-old from Sheffield, isn't just any British athlete. She is, as The Guardian says, "the poster girl for the London Games" who has been put out front as one of the faces of the British team. After learning of the foul-up, the newspaper says she had this to say:

"I feel let down. I felt like it was a good race, I was running well, I was obviously coming through at the end, stick another hurdle on there it would have been the same outcome but, argh, I'm so annoyed. What can I say? I've still had a good competitive race but I've just not got the result that I wanted."

We assume, by the way, that this kind of thing won't be allowed to happen during the London Games, which get started in 67 days.

As for her sport, along with the 100-meter hurdles, what other events are in the two-day heptathlon?

— High jump.

— Shot put.

— 200-meter sprint.

— Long lump.

— Javelin.

— 800-meter race.

A 43-year-old woman in San Clemente, Calif., suffered second- and third-degree burns on her right leg and right arm Saturday after rocks in a pocket set her shorts on fire, The Orange County Register says.

Orange County Fire Authority officials tell the newspaper that the woman collected the rocks on a nearby beach, returned home and "was standing in her kitchen ... when the pocket of her cargo shorts caught fire."

"I talked to the paramedic who treated her, and in his 27 years in responding to calls near the beach, he's never seen this," Fire Authority Capt. Marc Stone told the Register. "The rocks were still smoking when firefighters took them to the hospital."

Now, they're being tested. It's possible, Stone said, that phosphorus in the stones may have caused the combustion.

(We'll say it before others do: This isn't serious news! It's for those of us who like the odd story on occasion.)

We have a fondness for stories about centenarians, we have to admit.

There was Fauja Singh, the 100-year-old "Turbaned Tornado," who finished the Toronto Marathon last year.

And we've posted about Tennessee's Evelyn "Mama Bird" Johnson, who died last week at the age of 102. She held the Guinness world record for most hours logged by a female pilot.

Now we're hearing about Marie Kelleher in Virginia, who at the age of 99 is still setting swimming age-group records. Counted as being 100 because United States Masters Swimming rules "use the swimmer's age as of December 31 for competitions held in 25-meter courses," according to Virginia Masters Swimming, she just became "the oldest known American woman to have competed at a USMS-recognized meet."

The Richmond Times-Dispatch says that "Kelleher swims four days a week, usually logging about 10 laps per session. She arrives at the Tuckahoe YMCA at 5 a.m. on her swimming days, driving herself 9 miles from her home to arrive exactly when the Y opens."

"I need the swimming," she told the newspaper, with a grin. "I'm not much at walking anymore. ... I told somebody recently that I staggered when I walk. He said that didn't sound too good. So let's just say I wobble."

It's only for women — and only for one woman at a time, it seems.

But officials in Ichihara City, Japan, claim they've created the "biggest public toilet in the world."

As The Japan Times reports, outside the city's train station there's now a fenced-in, "200-sq.-meter plot of land" with flowers, plants, pathways and — "smack in the middle" — a toilet enclosed in a glass box.

"Why make it so unusual?" the newspaper asks. According to an official from the Ichihara City Tourism Promotion Department, "it's hoped that the toilet will become a tourist attraction for visitors to next year's Ichihara City Art Festival, which is currently in its planning stages. The festival is a government-led initiative to improve the area through the 'renovation of public facilities with the help of arts,' which they hope will attract more tourists and boost the region's economy."

The 6 1/2-high wall is supposed to help provide privacy. There also appear to be curtains that can be drawn around the inside of the toilet's glass box.

Cost of this project: About $125,000.

We'll ask before you do: Money well spent, or has it been flushed down the drain?

(H/T to ABC News' Akiko Fujita.)

He made this decision before scientists told us that, back in the prehistoric day, dinosaur farts likely contributed to climate change:

Tyler Gold of York, Neb., is now officially named Tyrannosaurus Rex Joseph Gold, the local York News Times reports.

But there's no sign that Tyler ... er, Tyrannosaurus Rex ... is rethinking his choice because of any breaking news about breaking wind.

According to the News Times:

"In Gold's official filing with the court, he said he wanted to change his name 'because the (T-Rex designation) is cooler. Also, as an entrepreneur, name recognition is important and the new name is more recognizable.' He verbally repeated his reasoning during the court proceedings, while on the witness stand [Monday]."

Of course, he probably isn't even in first place on The Two-Way's list of guys with unusual names. Who's going to top Beezow Doo-Doo Zopittybop-Bop-Bop?

One last note: Here's another reason why this old hack/new blogger still loves local newspapers. Back in March, between notes about child support and divorce cases, the News Times slipped in a notice that the local court would be considering "the matter of the name change of Tyler Joseph Gold, York, ... seeking change to Tyrannosaurus Rex Joseph Gold." That's news you can use.

For fans of incredible feats:

Friday in Estonia, guard Armands Skele from BC Kalev/Kramo swished from about half-court with a no-look, back-to-the-basket, falling-out-of-bounds flip that sure looks like a one-in-a-million shot. The video is here.

And then there's Maryland teenager Machiah Thomas' trick shot. Watch him do a forward flip from downtown and launch the ball into the hoop. Be sure to see the slow motion replay, which comes around the 50-second mark in the video.

Two nice alternatives to the other basketball news of the day, about Metta World Peace's seven-game suspension.

(H/T to NPR.org's Amy Morgan.)

Thank goodness he doesn't know what's going on inside.

Candice Ludlow of member station WKNO today helps All Things Considered ketchup ... er catch up ... on a story that's been cooking for a week or so in Tennessee.

It seems that a big red rooster has been hanging out in front of a restaurant in Collierville, Tenn., for the past few months.

But it's not just any restaurant.

It's called Gus's Fried Chicken, as Memphis' The Commercial Appeal reported earlier this month. And, yes, the rooster has to cross the road to get there.

Candice reports that restaurant owner Mathew McCrory says since the bird started showing up, business has picked up: "You know, we've got a little bit of publication out of him, a little press with him hanging out here. Customers always come in and try to take pictures of him. He's been good for business he's been good. We call him Gus."

WREG-TV from Memphis also checked out the story last week. It has video of Gus (a.k.a. Big Red).

Stories about someone beating a traffic ticket by using an imaginative defense always seem to strike a chord.

That probably explains why this tale from California has slowly gained attention over the past week. As Physics Central explains, Dmitri Krioukov, a physicist based at the University of California, San Diego, used some math, some physics, some scientific language and the claim of a critically timed sneeze to help persuade a judge to drop a ticket he'd gotten for allegedly running a stop sign.

We've read through pieces done by Wired, Yahoo and others, as well as the four-page paper, called Proof of Innocence, that Krioukov produced to make his case. We come away with this conclusion:

Basically, he convinced the judge that the police officer's view was obscured at the critical moment. At the instant his vehicle stopped, Krioukov argued, another car passed between him and the officer. So the officer didn't see Krioukov's vehicle come to a halt.

The physics and math came in when Krioukov showed with graphics and formulas that the officer might have come to a mistaken conclusion because:

"It is widely known that an observer measuring the speed of an object passing by, measures not its actual linear velocity [but] the angular one. For example ... watching a train approaching us from far away at a constant speed, we first perceive the train not moving at all, when it is really far, but when the train comes closer, it appears to us moving faster and faster, and when it actually passes us, its visual speed is maximized."

But the train, he argued, might never have changed its speed.

The officer, Krioukov maintained, assumed that the car went through the intersection because it appeared to be gaining speed as it approached — though he insists it was not.

And that's where the sneeze comes in.

Krioukov says in his paper (the "he" is a reference to himself) that:

"In fact, he was sneezing while approaching the stop sign. As a result he involuntary pushed the brakes very hard. Therefore we can assume that the deceleration was close to maximum possible for a car."

In other words, he stopped quickly because he sneezed as he hit the brakes. All this supposedly happened just as the other car blocked the officer's view.

The court apparently bought his argument.

"The judge was convinced, and the officer was convinced as well," Krioukov told Physics Central.

If this doesn't make you want to put down that cellphone, we don't know what will.

Watch what happened as Los Angeles TV station KTLA was tracking a black bear as it wandered through a neighborhood in La Crescenta, Calif., Tuesday morning.

Local resident Vaz Terdandenyan almost walked right into the 400-pound animal.

He'd gone outside to see why a helicopter was hovering over the area, and "I was texting my boss that I would be late for work because something is going on," he told the station afterward.

"I'm coming down the stairs and I see the bear coming up the stairs toward me," Terdandenyan added. "I turned back and I ran for my life."

All we can say is OMG.

When 93-year-old Rachel Veitch picked up the newspaper on March 10 and realized that the macular degeneration in her eyes had developed to the point where she couldn't read the print, she knew it was time to stop driving.

But there's much more to the Orlando, Fla., woman's story.

The decision meant she would no longer be getting behind the wheel of her beloved 1964 Mercury Comet Caliente, a car she calls "The Chariot." Veitch has pampered her ride for nearly five decades and 567,000 miles.

You read that right: 567,000 miles. (Not, by the way, 576,000 as some other news outlets have reported — a bit of transposing that Veitch is quick to correct.)

This afternoon she told All Things Considered co-host Robert Siegel that "there's no car on this earth I would trade for my Comet." It's been, she said, the "pumpkin that turned into the golden chariot and I'm Cinderella."

The "misty yellow" Chariot, which cost just under $3,300, still has her original engine. The air conditioner's also original. She's had her oil changed every 3,000 miles — Veitch buys it by the case and purchases filters too, then stands right there to make sure the mechanic does things right every time. (We're referring to Chariot as "she" or "her," by the way, because Veitch told Robert that's the way to do it.)

Chariot has outlasted the "lifetime guarantees" on three sets of shocks, eight mufflers and 18 batteries. "I'm the lifetime guarantee people's nightmare," Veitch said.

The car also has been with Veitch through three husbands.

"I Love My Car;" Read More:

A woman in Boston saw something white fall past her second floor window Wednesday afternoon "and ran to see what it was," according to the Boston Globe.

Turns out it was Sugar the cat, who had plunged to the ground from an apartment on the 19th floor.

Don't panic, everyone. Sugar is OK. Just some bruising of her lungs, according to the Animal Rescue League of Boston.

It helped, according to the Globe, that Sugar landed "on a soft patch of grass and mulch."

But as ABC News' 20/20 has explained, there's also been research done that indicates a cat may be better off falling from a high place than a relatively low one. It's called "high rise syndrome."

"Apparently," 20/20 reported, "cats that fall farther are able to spread their bodies like feline parachutes to slow themselves down." Then they land, of course, on their feet.

Want to see how a cat falls, in slow motion, and learn more about high rise syndrome? Check this video from National Geographic.

Sugar, by the way, was reunited with her owner thanks to a microchip embedded under her skin. The owner had been at work when Sugar took to the sky.

(H/T to the Globe, which used "purrfectly" in its headline before we could.)