ODDLY ENOUGH

ODDLY ENOUGH

You’ve Got A Ride! Voice of AOL’s ‘mail’ is Uber driver

CLEVELAND

A California woman stumbled upon a voice from the past during a trip to Ohio when she discovered her Uber driver was the man behind America Online’s famous “You’ve Got Mail” greeting.

Brandee Barker was in the Cleveland area for the presidential campaign when she got into an Uber driven by Elwood Edwards. After Edwards told her about his claim to fame, she took a video of him saying the phrase and posted it on Twitter .

Edwards told The Associated Press in 1999 that he recorded his AOL greetings in 1989. He was also the voice of AOL’s “Welcome,” ‘’Goodbye” and “File’s Done” messages.

“You’ve Got Mail” became a pop culture catchphrase in the late 1990s and served as the title of a 1998 Tom Hanks film.

Dead city treasurer wins re-election in California race

OCEANSIDE, Calif.

Voters in one California city have elected a dead man to office.

Official figures show that Oceanside City Treasurer Gary Ernst was re-elected last Tuesday even though he died in September.

Ernst earned 17,659 votes and beat challenger Nadine Scott by about 6 percentage points.

There wasn’t time to remove his name from the ballot after he died from diabetes complications.

Since he can’t take office, the City Council can declare the seat vacant and decide to appoint someone to fill out the term or call a special election. A decision could be made next month.

Scott tells San Diego’s KNSD-TV that she’d like to be appointed to the post to honor the more than 15,000 people who voted for her.

She says she doesn’t think voters knew Ernst was dead.

Woman upset by Trump victory gives out free hugs

WESTERLY, R.I.

A Rhode Island woman upset over the election of Donald Trump has spent her day giving out free hugs.

Jenny Daley, of South Kingstown, tells The Westerly Sun that she woke up after the election and needed a hug and figured a lot of other people did, too.

So the 31-year-old restaurant worker headed to downtown Westerly with a sign that said, “Need a hug today? They are free. Just ask.”

Daley says she did not want to “spend the whole day in fear” so she decided to show love to as many people as she could.

Daley gave out hugs to several people, including some who told her stories about their lives, and one woman who stopped and gave her an umbrella after it began to drizzle.

Associated Press