Etc...

YOU HAD NO RIGHT TO DO THAT!

Emily Harris stopped at a second-hand charity store in Edinburgh, Scotland, to try on some clothes for the rest of her cycling trip around the world. Big mistake. By the time the Palmer, Alaska, resident emerged from the fitting room, her $1,850 bike no longer was leaning against the mannekin where she'd left it. In fact, it wasn't in the shop at all. An attendant, thinking it was merchandise, had sold it to another customer for $15. Harris won profuse apologies, but nothing else. Said a spokeswoman for the charity: "Someone's got an incredible bargain .... We're hoping the person who bought it will have the decency, when he realizes the mistake, to bring it back."

Speaking of Scotland, the city of Dundee is to etch in stone the words of local hero William McGonagall later this year on the 100th anniversary of his death. But not because the poet was great. According to legend, his verses were so poorly written that when he was asked to read them aloud it was so the audience could laugh at him. Asked for comment, an official of the memorial campaign said, "His poetry is so bad, it's memorable."

Federally mandated mortgage giant Fannie Mae broke the two-year hold of the Advantica Restaurant Group as the best employer in the US for minorities, according to an annual ranking by Fortune magazine. Its top 10 and their home cities:

1. Fannie Mae, Washington

2. Sempra Energy, San Diego

3. Advantica Restaurant Group, Spartanburg, S.C.

4. SBC Communications, San Antonio, Texas

5. McDonald's, Oak Brook, Ill.

6. PNM Resources, Albuquerque, N.M.

7. Southern California Edison, Rosemead, Calif.

8. US Postal Service, Washington

9. Freddie Mac, McLean, Va.

10. BellSouth, Atlanta

– Business Wire