oddly enough

oddly enough

State agency typo sends callers to ‘free and fun party line’

BOSTON

The words “free” and “fun” are not the first things that come to mind when talking about the Massachusetts Department of Administration and Finance.

Yet a typo in a phone number on a news release issued by the agency Wednesday sent media inquiries to a “free and fun party line” advertising adult hot lines.

The Boston Herald reports that the release declaring October as Cyber Security Awareness Month mistakenly substituted area code “617” instead of “857” in a spokesman’s number.

Department chief of staff Dominick Ianno says the error was an obvious typo since “nothing is free and fun in the Executive Office for Administration and Finance.”

The mistake was quickly corrected.

The incorrect number also instructed callers on how to set up small businesses to receive commissions for satellite TV referrals.

Ronald McDonald statue in Vermont burned, decapitated

BURLINGTON, Vt.

Officials say vandals burned, decapitated and cut the feet off a smiling Ronald McDonald statue that sat outside a Ronald McDonald House in Vermont.

The statue had occupied a bench outside the Burlington home for years, welcoming sick children and families who need to be close to the University of Vermont Medical Center.

Executive Director Kristine Bickford told New England Cable News that volunteers moved the statue’s remains into storage because children were traumatized by seeing it.

She said that on three occasions, vandals burned the statue’s face, took off its head and sawed off its feet. The head was discovered dumped near the city’s waterfront.

Bickford estimates it will cost $7,500 to buy a new statue. She said the new statue will be kept indoors.

Study: Cheese is addictive

For years you’ve been telling your friends, family, co-workers and anyone who will listen that you’re addicted to cheese. It’s a part of every meal or snack, and you think about it constantly. According to a new study from the University of Michigan, cheese crack is a real thing. And so is your addiction.

The study, published in the U.S. National Library of Medicine, examines why certain foods are more addictive than others. Researchers identified addictive foods from about 500 students who completed the Yale Food Addiction Scale, designed to measure if someone has a food addiction. Pizza, unsurprisingly, came out on top of the most-addictive-food list. Besides being a basic food group for kids, college students and adults, there’s a scientific reason we all love pizza, and it has to do with the cheese.

Cheese happens to be especially addictive because of an ingredient called casein, a protein found in all milk products. During digestion, casein releases opiates called casomorphins.

Combined dispatches