Alcohol-free kegger

It had the look of any other raging teen kegger: cars parked three-deep in the driveway, loud music and high school students everywhere. However, when police drove up to bust the party, they found a keg full of root beer.

After giving dozens of breath-analyzer tests and searching the house, the police conceded that none of the partiers were under the influence.

The party was held by 18-year-old Dustin Zebro. He wanted to prove to his school that teenagers don’t always hold drinking parties.

D.C. Everest High School in Schofield, Wis., suspended several of its student athletes after school officials saw pictures of the students drinking out of red cups.

Zebro, a student at D.C. Everest, told The Associated Press that the kegger was held to make fun of the school.

“They assumed there was beer in the cups,” he said. “We just wanted to have some root beer in red cups and just make it look like a party, but there actually wasn't any alcohol.”

The incident has gained nationwide fame after a video of the bust appeared on YouTube.com.

Swan in love

It’s an odd couple, but to a black swan named Petra, it all makes sense: The swan is devoted to a large, swan-shaped paddleboat, and rarely leaves the vessel’s side. Her attachment is so strong that when German zoo officials tried to move her into the zoo in 2006, they had to take the paddleboat, too.

In the past few months, Petra struck up a relationship with a real swan at the zoo, but it was short-lived. The male swan abandoned her last weekend and zoo officials decided to return Petra to her first love, the paddleboat.

Despite Petra’s strong affection for the boat, Zoo Director Joerg Adler told The Associated Press, it is too early to tell whether Petra will stay with the boat this time.

With friends like these…

Like many, William Bowen woke confused after a night of drinking. However, he was even more bewildered to discover that he was in a garbage truck, surrounded by waste.

The driver had just emptied a dumpster into the truck and was about to activate the trash compacter when he heard someone screaming from inside. Luckily for Bowen, the driver stopped the compactor.

“He looked up and this gentleman was standing out the top of our truck,” said Larry Green, market safety supervisor for the waste disposal company, in an Associated Press article March 29.

The only thing Bowen said to the driver was that he was very cold.

“This gentleman was extremely intoxicated,” he said.

When questioned by the police, Bowen said he and friends had been drinking until 3 a.m. in Muncie, Ind. He didn’t know how he ended up in the truck, and he refused to tell authorities the names of his drinking buddies.

[Reach columnist Erika Cederlind at news@thedaily.washington.edu]