ODDLY ENOUGH

August 16, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

ODDLY ENOUGH

Calif. mall’s chat policy illegal

ROSEVILLE, Calif.

A Northern California appeals court has struck down a shopping mall’s policy barring people from approaching strangers to chitchat. The 3rd District Court of Appeal last week said the rules at Roseville’s Westfield Galleria violate the California Constitution’s free-speech guarantee.

The mall prohibited people in its common areas from approaching people they didn’t know to talk unless the conversation was about business involving the mall or its tenants. The case arose after mall officials issued a citizen’s arrest of a 27-year-old pastor who tried to talk about his faith.

The appeals court says the policy effectively bars shoppers from chatting about the weather or offering directions.

A spokeswoman for Westfield says the mall is considering appealing to the California Supreme Court.

Human-domino record set

BEIJING

More than 10,000 people in northern China have set a world record for the longest chain of human dominoes.

Arranged in lines, they slowly collapsed backward onto each other in sequence from a sitting position like a line of toppling dominoes.

The 10,267 people who took part wore color-coordinated clothes that spelled out in English and Chinese the name of the city of Ordos in Inner Mongolia where the record attempt was made Thursday.

Wu Xiaohong, the monitor for Guinness World Records, declared the new record. It beat the record set a decade ago in Singapore by more than 1,000 people.

Wash. utility’s bills stink

BELLEVUE, Wash.

Paying bills usually stinks, but gas bills from a utility in Washington state will include something truly odorous this month: the stench of rotten eggs.

As part of a safety campaign, Puget Sound Energy is including a scratch-and-sniff pamphlet with its billing statements to remind customers what leaking gas smells like.

Natural gas is odorless, but providers add a chemical to the gas that has a distinctive, sulfurlike aroma similar to rotten eggs so leaks can be detected.

Pastor spends 3 days 50 feet up

COCONUT CREEK, Fla.

A South Florida pastor who spent nearly three days living on a mechanical lift 50 feet in the air came down from his lofty perch Thursday. Pastor T.J. McCormick, of Coastal Community Church, stayed on the lift until 1,000 backpacks filled with school supplies were donated for kids in Collier City.

McCormick braved summer heat and rainstorms from the time his mission began Tuesday. Nonetheless, he says he’d do it again.

Associated Press