oddly enough

oddly enough

89-year-old Utah man feels lucky to survive bee attack

ST. GEORGE, Utah

An 89-year-old Utah man says he feels lucky to be alive after being stung nearly 400 times during a bee attack at a baseball game.

Jay Francis of Bountiful said he’s doing better at home after being rushed to the hospital for treatment Friday in St. George.

“First it was one, then two, then three. Then they were everywhere,” he told the Deseret News newspaper of Salt Lake City. “It was just horrible. My head started aching. I can’t believe how sensitive it was.”

His son, Kevin, ran to help after seeing his father being attacked.

“His face was just covered in bees. You saw his eyes and his mouth. ... It was like a bee swarm out of an Alfred Hitchcock movie,” the son said. He and his mother each were stung a few dozen times.

The attack prompted players and spectators to flee, witnesses said, and the bees continued stinging people for nearly 15 minutes until firefighters arrived.

“There were people running everywhere, swatting at bees. It was very chaotic,” Fire Capt. Robert Hooper told the Deseret News. “Since they were being so aggressive, we used water and foam to destroy those aggressive bees.”

Several other people were treated for stings at the scene.

Lone Peak High School baseball coach Matt Bezzant has said the bees came from a dugout, and players were chased by dozens of bees.

Cow in Northeast Texas defies odds, gives birth to 4 calves

LUBBOCK, Texas

A cow in Northeast Texas apparently has defied great odds and given birth to four calves that have been named Eeny, Meeny, Miny and Moo.

Jimmy Barling said Monday that DNA tests will be done on tissue samples from the three bull calves and the one heifer calf to satisfy those who may question the births from one mother.

“We knew she was pregnant, but we didn’t know she was going to do this,” the 76-year-old Barling said. “This was a shock. This blew our minds.”

Barling’s wife, Dora Rumsey-Barling, owns the couple’s 20 or so cattle outside DeKalb, near the Arkansas and Oklahoma state lines. Rumsey-Barling’s granddaughter named the four black calves Eeny, Meeny, Miny and Moo, Barling said.

Local veterinarian Mike Baird called the March 16 births “extremely rare.” He said the odds of four live births from one cow are 1 in 11.2 million. Baird knows the couple well and is nearly certain the four came from one mother, rather than a nearby cow perhaps birthing one or two and then moving along so that it appeared the four came from the Barling’s cow.

“In the interest of science and the animal world, it’s one of those things that need to be verified beyond a shadow of a doubt,” he said.

Associated Press