Odds and Ends

ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- The stench broke the case of the missing halibut.

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A fishy stink led airline officials to what they believe is the 40 pounds of halibut a traveler reported missing from his checked bags two weeks ago.

Brenee Davis, a general manager for Continental Airlines in Anchorage, said the company's baggage handlers discovered "a ton of rotting fish" under a luggage conveyor belt recently at Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport.

She suspects it was the halibut passenger Ray Bolanos reported missing from a cooler he checked on a June 24 flight from Anchorage to Seattle. The fish was thrown away immediately.

"We've gone through a few cans of Lysol," Davis said.

Davis' theory is that Bolanos' cooler wasn't properly secured and came open on the conveyor belt.

Bolanos doesn't buy that explanation.

When his fish cooler came off the luggage carousel in Seattle, he said he found a rope he had tied around the chest inside and his 40 individually wrapped one-pound chunks of halibut gone.

"It's not something that was chewed off. It was a clear cut," Bolanos said Saturday, when he was reached on his cell phone in Kenmore, Wash.

Davis said workers initially thought the smell was related to construction at the airport. Then it got worse.

"There was mass migration down there to figure out what the smell was," she said.

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CHADRON, Neb. -- A 19-year-old man took top honors at a contest here like no other.

Ed Sydow threw a dried buffalo dropping 108 feet, nine inches Saturday to be named winner of the World Championship Buffalo Chip Toss.

Janalee Cole of Buffalo, Wyo., took the women's title throwing 68 feet.

The event is more than 20 years old and organizers say they have not heard of any other such contest - nor have they been challenged for claiming the event is the world championship.

The top three winners in each age and sex division took home a plaque featuring a gold, silver or bronze-painted buffalo chip.

The event was part of the annual Chadron Fur Trade Days celebration.

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UKIAH, Calif. -- Was it freedom of speech or disturbing the peace when Ric Piffero pumped patriotic music through a concert-sized speaker early the morning of the Fourth of July?

The 30 people who complained to 911 and the woman who tried to execute a citizen's arrest have their answer. As do residents of this city about 100 miles north of San Francisco who appreciated the tunes and hope it becomes tradition.

The 15-minute program consisted of Piffero's friend singing "God Bless America," followed by "The Star-Spangled Banner" and Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the U.S.A." Blasted from a hilltop on Piffero's property, the music reached ears several miles away.

The district attorney opted not to file charges. But the ensuing brouhaha fueled debate in this politically divided town.

Piffero has a penchant for showy holiday celebrations. Last December he blasted Christmas carols and, on Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday, set off red, white and blue fireworks.

When Piffero went even bigger on July 4, Alea Waters got out of bed, found him and issued a citizen's arrest for disturbing the peace.

Piffero said he's about patriotism, not politics.

"I fight those battles at the polls," the registered Republican said.

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CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa -- A church's plan for an old-fashioned book-burning has been thwarted by city and county fire codes.

Preachers and congregations throughout American history have built bonfires and tossed in books and other materials they believed offended God. The Rev. Scott Breedlove, pastor of The Jesus Church, wanted to rekindle that tradition in a July 28 ceremony where books, CDs, videos and clothing would have been thrown into the flames.

Not so fast, city officials said.

"We don't want a situation where people are burning rubbish as a recreational fire," said Brad Brenneman, the fire department's district chief.

Linn County won't go for a fire outside city limits, either. Officials said the county's air quality division prohibits the transporting of materials from the city to the county for burning.

Breedlove said a city fire inspector suggested shredding the offending material, but Breedlove said that wouldn't seem biblical.

"I joked with the guy that St. Paul never had to worry about fire codes," Breedlove said.

The new plan calls for members of the church to throw materials into garbage cans and then light candles to symbolically "burn" the material.