oddly enough

oddly enough

Skyscraper game of Tetris breaks world record

PHILADELPHIA

All the pieces have fallen into place for the designer of a giant Tetris game.

Drexel University professor Frank Lee has earned the Guinness World Record for largest architectural video-game display. Again.

Lee and two colleagues created a computer program to play the classic shape-fitting puzzle on two sides of a 29-story skyscraper in Philadelphia.

They used hundreds of lights embedded in the glass facades of the Cira Centre. All told, the “screens” totaled nearly 120,000 square feet.

Dozens of Tetris enthusiasts played the supersized version in April using a joystick from about a mile away.

The record announced Tuesday beat the previous one also set by Lee. Last year, he recreated the classic Atari game Pong on a single side of the same building.

Swollen creek not enough to halt food order

FAIRBANKS, Alaska

A little thing like a flooded creek was not enough to keep an Alaska restaurant owner from delivering Thai ribs and fried rice to stranded customers over the weekend.

Anuson “Knott” Poolsawat, owner of Knott’s Take Out in North Pole, forded the swollen waters of Clear Creek to reach two customers stuck along the Richardson Highway, the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reported.

Mike Laiti and Brandon Borgens were completing a multi-day drive Saturday night up the Alaska Highway when they called in their order to the restaurant, which was near closing. As they approached Clear Creek, they learned a sinkhole had developed from heavy rain near the creek. The state Department of Transportation closed the bridge.

Laiti called Poolsawat to cancel their order at the restaurant more than 25 miles away in North Pole.

“I called him and said, ‘Hey man, I can’t make it,’ and he said, ‘Not a problem — I’ll come cross the waters,’” Laiti said. “He called me and said, ‘Should I bring a boat?’”

Poolsawat hiked up his shorts and waded through the creek, holding the takeout boxes over his head. The cold water was hip-deep.

Poolsawat already had done them a favor by staying open late, Laiti said. The delivery was beyond expectations.

Thief steals Model A from churchgoer, crashes it

PRINEVILLE, Ore.

Central Oregon authorities say a 79-year-old man took a 1930 Ford Model A coupe to church Sunday to show it off. But when he left it so he could get a bite of lunch, sheriff’s deputies say, it was stolen and crashed into the Crooked River south of Prineville.

Photos show the mangled vehicle in the river, but no estimate of the damage was immediately available.

Capt. Michael Boyd said 34-year-old Erik Blake Halpin, described as a transient, was accused of drunken driving and unauthorized use of a vehicle.

Associated Press