oddly enough

oddly enough

NJ cease-and-desist order brings scathing rebuttal

NEWARK, N.J.

Rare is the legal rebuttal that calls a cease-and-desist order a “literary gag gift” and uses the phrase “big meanie.”

Then there’s the sarcasm-laden document that landed on the desk of the West Orange, N.J., township lawyer last week.

It’s a response to a cease-and-desist order sent to a township resident who started using the website westorange.info in May.

The township said it would likely “deceive the public” and must be taken down.

The man’s lawyer, Stephen B. Kaplitt, sent a scathing rebuttal reminding the township lawyer about the First Amendment.

Kaplitt even makes fun of the website, saying it’s “so minimalist that it arguably qualifies as modern art.”

Kaplitt has not heard from the town, which did not return requests from The Associated Press to comment.

Mass. couple’s message in a bottle from 2001 found

REHOBOTH, Mass.

The couple from Massachusetts had just finished off a bottle of champagne to celebrate their engagement on a Florida beach in August 2001 when they got a crazy idea.

They wrote a message, shoved the cork back into the bottle and tossed it into the waves off Tampa.

The message read: “To whoever finds this bottle: May you be blessed as the two of us. May you find someone to love with as much compassion. May you find and keep someone who completes you. This is our message in a bottle.”

They included their first names and a post-office box in their hometown of Attleboro.

Karl and Michele Kimmell, now the parents of two children and about to celebrate their 10th wedding anniversary, say they occasionally wondered if anyone had found the bottle.

“It was just a regular cork in the bottle, so I figured the cork would start leaking eventually,” Karl, 36, told WLNE-TV.

Turns out someone had found it, on the opposite coast of Florida.

Michael Souvigny found the bottle in February while hunting along the St. John’s River in Green Cove Springs, Fla.

“It was very much a surprise,” Michele, 35, told The Sun Chronicle newspaper.

Souvigny responded to the message, but his letter was returned because the post- office box account was closed, and Karl and Michele had moved to neighboring Rehoboth.

At the urging of a friend, Souvigny turned to The Sun Chronicle, which published a story about the bottle.

Michele’s sister saw the story and recognized the handwriting on the letter, a copy of which was printed with the article.

She contacted the Kimmells, who plan on contacting Souvigny.

“It’s neat that someone actually ended up finding it,” Michele said.

Associated Press