A few years ago The Associated Press moved a story with a Tel Aviv placeline, the jist of which went like this:

Man and wife in their second-floor apartment, getting dressed to go out. Wife is putting on hairspray, but it's an almost empty cannister. She sprays a little, turns it upside down and sprays it into the toilet, then back for another spritz on her hair, repeating the process several times.

She exits bathroom, hubby goes in, sits down on the throne and throws the butt of his cigarette between his legs into the bowl. Big explosion.

Wife phones emergency services and paramedics arrive in short order. They load hubby onto a stretcher and start to head out while the wife is explaining to them what happened. They get to the top of the steps just as she gets enough out for the paramedics to realize what happened; they crack up and drop the stretcher, sending hubby to the bottom with two broken legs.

One of the senior editors at my paper wanted to run the story, and just wouldn't believe a friend from Florida had told me almost exactly the same story in about 1959. She put it in the paper, I went to her boss and it got yanked. The next day AP was "sticking by its story," but you can bet some green reporter was getting reamed a new one. Talk about embarrassing....

david