PHONOGRAPH

A couple sat by their daughter's hospital bedside for weeks after an auto accident until she came out of a coma and they realized she was not their daughter after all, but another blond-haired young woman injured in the wreck.

Their own daughter, it turned out, was dead and buried.

In a tragic mix-up, one family had been incorrectly told their daughter had died in the April 26 crash in Indiana, and another was erroneously informed their daughter was in a coma.

The two young women, both students at Indiana's Taylor University,— looked remarkably alike, and the one in a coma suffered facial swelling, broken bones and cuts and bruises, and was in a neck brace.

This undated photo provided by the International Bird Rescue Research Center, shows an X-ray taken Sunday, May 21, 2006, of an injured duck with a broken wing. The International Bird Rescue Research Center in Cordelia. Calif., plans to raise funds with an unusual duck X-ray, which they say shows the clear image of what appears to be the face, or head, of an extraterrestrial alien in the bird's stomach. Unfortunately, the duck died quickly and quietly of its injuries.

If you think keeping fit is merely mind over matter, Lester Clancy has an invention for you— a cordless jump-rope. That's right, a jump-rope minus the rope. All that's left is two handles, so you jump over the pretend rope. Or if you are truly lazy, you can pretend to jump over the pretend rope.

And for that idea kicking around Clancy's head since 1988, the U.S. Patent Office this month awarded the 52-year-old Mansfield, Ohio, man a patent. Its number: 7037243.

What makes this invention work is the moving weights inside the handles. They simulate the feel of a rope moving, Clancy said. Well, it's only one handle so far because Clancy is waiting for financial backers before building its partner.

A tiny White House commission has spent the past five years and $1.5 million trying to bring a new American tradition to Memorial Day's barbecues, parades and sales: A moment of remembrance, a sigh, perhaps a prayer. Just a 30-second pause.

The results, so far, are mixed.

The White House Commission on the National Moment of Remembrance does have a theme song donated by Charles Strouse, creator of the musical "Annie." There's a logo, pens and coasters, prewritten news articles and television spots. There have been events, like a sand-sculpture display inspired by D-Day.

Ten states so far this year have passed a version of the law, after Florida was the first last year. It's already being considered in Arizona in the case of a deadly shooting on a hiking trail.

Supporters have dubbed the new measures "stand your ground" laws, while critics offered nicknames like the "shoot first," "shoot the Avon lady" or "right to commit murder" laws.

At its core, they broaden self-defense by removing the requirement in most states that a person who is attacked has a "duty to retreat" before turning to deadly force.

The campaign is simply about self-defense, said Oklahoma state Rep. Kevin Calvey, a Republican and author of the law in his state. "Law-abiding citizens aren't going to take it anymore," he said.

"It's going to give the crooks second thoughts about carjackings and things like that. They're going to get a face full of lead," Calvey said

Gado figured real-world experience was the next logical step. But he didn't want his newfound stardom to get in the way, so he went undercover.

"I really just wanted to blend in," Gado said. "I wasn't doing it for show. I didn't want people to say, 'Oh, look at this Green Bay Packer working.' I really wanted the experience. And I'm going to do it again next year."

His cover eventually was blown. In a drug-induced haze, a man coming out of surgery told his wife that the guy wearing scrubs played football.

"She says, 'My husband swears that you're Samkon Gado and I'm telling him that you're not, that you wouldn't be working here if you were.' And he'd just gotten out of surgery, so this guy was doped up," Gado said.

Gado fessed up. After the initial shock, the woman asked, "What are you doing here?"

After years of testing and development, KFC has introduced a meal-in-a-bowl aimed at customers who want a traditional hot plate lunch with the convenience of a burger or sandwich.

The KFC Famous Bowls layer mashed potatoes or rice, sweet corn and bite-sized pieces of popcorn chicken, drizzle gravy over it and top it with a three-cheese blend.

This, we gotta see.

Let's go over the ingredients once again:

[I]nterim anchor Bob Schieffer has turned the once-troubled broadcast around, increasing ratings while competitors at NBC and ABC have declined, and paving the way for the arrival of NBC Today star Katie Couric Sept. 5.

Last week, for the first time since 2001, Evening News beat ABC's World News Tonight in total viewers, setting the stage for a horse race between the two newscasts while NBC Nightly News enjoys a comfortable margin in first place.

"30 Rock" stars Emmy winner Tina Fey (NBC's "Saturday Night Live," "Mean Girls") as the head writer of a frenetic late-night television variety show (Fey is also the writer and an executive producer with Lorne Michaels). Alec Baldwin ("The Aviator," The Cooler") and Tracy Morgan (NBC's "Saturday Night Live") also star.

"Andy Barker, P.I.," starring Andy Richter, who re-teams with co-writer and executive producer Conan O'Brien (NBC's "Late Night with Conan O'Brien") as an earnest CPA who embraces the unlikely chance to become a private detective.

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Elliot: JD, I really don't wanna do this. Can't we just go home, and put on our PJs and watch "Grey's Anatomy"?
JD: Oh, I do love that show. It's like they've been watching our lives and just... put it on TV

Ending weekend meetings with family members, former Capitol aides and friends, the 64-year-old Thompson said he would do all he can to defeat Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle in November from the campaign sidelines and not by trying to reclaim the job he held from 1987 to 2001.

"I have come to this conclusion for two simple reasons: my family's unanimous opposition against another campaign and because I am convinced that Mark Green is the right candidate to lead our party and will be victorious in November," Thompson said in a statement.

Thompson is doing the right thing, considering his family's unanimous opposition. Why the italics for emphasis? That is because on Friday, local news channel NBC15 sure thought they were getting the inside scoop from a public relations firm that seemed to know a lot about Thompson:

We talked with Roger Putnam and Tim Roby of Putnam Roby Communications for the latest details Friday.

"Something that we have heard in the last few hours, is that Tommy has the blessing of the family.

Whatever he decides to do, the family, Sue Ann, and his daughter and son have said we will support you; that is a huge development, now whether he actually goes for it, remains to be seen, but that was the big stumbling block, and I've been told that was somewhat removed this morning, says Tim Roby.

And really, how expensive is $500? According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the median household income in America in 2003 was $43,318. Gamers skew young, so let's be conservative and cut that number in half. That's $21,659. The Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development says Americans worked an average of 1,792 hours in 2003. That comes to $12.09 an hour for those making half the median. At that rate, a $500 PS3 can be had for a little more than 41 hours of work—about half of which you will spend reading blog posts about Lindsay Lohan. That 41 hours of work will earn you how many hours of dopamine-pumping PS3 action? The Entertainment Software Association informs us that the average American gamer spends about seven-and-a-half hours per week, or 390 hours annually, riding the video tiger. Let's again make a conservative estimate and assume that PS3 users will log twice that amount: 780 hours a year of gaming time. Now suppose your PS3 explodes in a dazzling shower of sparks after exactly one year. In that tragic circumstance, each hour of pixilated joy will have cost you about three minutes on the job. If it makes you feel better, you can spend that three minutes in the bathroom.

Ten years ago, Chris Ochoa was contemplating suicide in a Texas prison cell, serving a life sentence for a rape and murder he confessed to, but did not commit... When Ochoa was released in 2001, after spending about 12 years in Texas prisons, he became the first person exonerated by the Wisconsin Innocence Project.

But the bill falls far short of Mr. Bush's original goal, which was to make permanent all of his major tax cuts from 2001 and 2003. Nor did Republican leaders work out their differences on a separate measure that would extend scores of other tax cuts that expired at the end of last year.

[E]arly national-level data suggest that inequality began growing again in 2003. Incomes at the top have rebounded strongly from the stock market correction, while the negative effects of the recent recession on low- and moderate-income families have lasted longer than usual. Thus, it appears that the two-decade-long trend of worsening income inequality has resumed.

The income gap between rich and poor in the United States has shrunk in recent years, Treasury Secretary John W. Snow said yesterday, addressing an issue frequently raised by critics of President Bush's economic policies this election year.

He began the 3,000-mile trek from his Oceanside, Calif., home to Manhattan on April 10, 2005, when he weighed 410 pounds and was suffering severe depression after accidentally killing two pedestrians while driving 15 years ago.

He ended the journey Tuesday — about 100 pounds lighter.

Along the way, he slept in tents and motels and went through 15 pairs of shoes, more than 30 pairs of socks and six backpacks. But he didn't measure mileage or the food he ate, and he said he aimed to change his behavior, not just his weight.

Check out his website: www.thefatmanwalking.com

The tune — and its notoriously archaic lyrics — have been mangled by singers ever since [its adoption as the National Anthem in 1931]. A recent poll revealed that 61 percent of Americans cannot correctly recite the lyrics, much less sing them.

"I'll get out, or I'll die," Blaine, 33, told hundreds of onlookers Monday before entering the water.

A year ago, the retired milk truck driver bought 500 gallons of gas at First Fuel Banks, locking it in at the then-current price of $2.03 a gallon. He taps that reserve whenever gas rises above that mark. If the retail price drops below $2.03, he can leave his reserve alone and buy elsewhere.

First Fuel Banks bills itself as the only retailer in the country where customers can buy gasoline for the future and hedge against rising prices. It advertises no service charge and no storage charge, just a $1 lifetime membership fee.

That sound you're hearing is the rest of the country kicking themselves for not having a gas bank in their town. Right now, St. Cloud is looking a lot smarter than the rest of us.

The Hubble Space Telescope has now snapped the first detailed pictures of what some observers are calling Red Spot Jr.

Astronomers at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore said this was the first time scientists had witnessed the birth of one of these huge oval spots, presumably a convective phenomenon like a powerful thunderstorm. The Great Red Spot was already present when observers first looked with telescopes at the planet some 400 years ago.