How Much Is That Model in the Window?
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}A lingerie shop owner in Augusta, Maine, has come up with a very interesting business model.
Felicia Stockford, owner of the store Spellbound, is attracting a lot more male window shoppers than usual with live, waving underwear models in the window, according to the Kennebec Journal.
Some business owners and residents have complained, but local cops say the skin-showing saleswomen aren't breaking the law.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"It's tainting the wholesome businesses down here," Carrie Rossignol, co-owner of Video Game Exchange, told the Journal. "I think it's selfish and I think it's morally reprehensible."
But Rossignol is apparently in the minority, the founder of a downtown merchants group said he hasn't heard any other complaints and thinks the oh-la-la display could help the struggling downtown area.
"It's like a New York thing. It's urban. It's edgy," Stacy Gervais, owner of Stacy's Hallmark Store, told the Journal. "We need a shtick — something that we do that attracts people and gets us remembered."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}It seems there was no shortage of willing applicants, Stockford said she had no difficulty digging up staffers — and said the window girls like to flaunt what they've got.
"They're exhibitionists," she told the Journal.
The models don't seem to argue that fact.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"I enjoy it," Tara Manns, 20, told the Journal. "I enjoy the looks I get."
"It's good to get attention once and a while," Amanda Richards, 21, told the paper.
Augusta Police Lt. Peter Couture said police have swung by the shop to follow up on the complaints, but maintained there's nothing illegal about wearing lingerie in public.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"I don't have a problem with it," Steve Goedecke, owner of a store adjacent to Spellbound, told the Journal as he watched Richards, Clark and Manns perform.
— Thanks to Out There reader Tim B.
Love Me, Love Me, Pretend That You Love Me
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Can you fake a hug?
Researchers in Singapore trying to transmit the sense of touch through the Internet have developed a vibration jacket for chickens and are trying to come up with electronic pajamas so you can hug your kid through the Web, according to The Straits Times.
Scientists at Nanyang Technological University told The Times that a wireless jacket for chickens and many other pets can give the animal the feeling that its owner is petting it.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}NTU is now trying to iron out a pajama suit for kids that, by using the Web to shift temperature and pressure, would actually simulate a parent hugging their child — and the child hugging back.
"These days, parents go on a lot of business trips, but with children, hugging and touching are very important," NTU Associate Professor Adrian David Cheok told The Times.
— Thanks to Out There reader Paul B.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}I Say, Old Chap, Let's Just Drink All Day
LONDON (AP) — In Britain, you can now belly up to the bar — and just stay there.
Twenty-four hour bars are now legal in England and Wales. Thursday was the first day for the relaxed laws and police said there haven't been any exceptional incidents.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The idea has gotten a lot of criticism and produced fearful headlines. Government figures show that about 700 businesses have applied for the round-the-clock licenses.
The idea behind the plan is to stop a flood of drunks onto the roads at the traditional closing time of 11 p.m. But critics said no measure that leads to an increase in alcohol consumption can be justified.
— Thanks to Out There reader Greg M.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Sorry to Dine and Dash, Ooo Ooo, Eee Eee
LOPBURI, Thailand (AP) — These were no party animals: Almost all the guests were too frightened to make an appearance, and the others ate and ran.
That didn't matter to the tourists who converged in Lopburi on Sunday to watch monkeys eat piles of fruits and vegetables during the 17th annual monkey banquet.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The party was thrown by local hotelier Yongyuth Kitwatananuson, who is thankful for the business the monkeys bring his city, 70 miles north of Bangkok.
The long-tailed macaques are regarded as disciples of Chao Pho Prakarn, a four-armed deity whose likeness is enshrined in the heart of town.
With such status, the monkeys are given free rein. They can be seen dropping peanut shells on street vendors, relieving themselves on curious onlookers and making merry on the electrical wires they use as footpaths. A sign at a local park says, "Beware of monkeys snatching your purse."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}But Sunday's festival was a bust. The crowds and noise scared the monkeys off — except for one or two dozen brave ones who stuffed themselves, leaving a terrible mess behind.
— Click in the photo box above to see pictures of the monkey banquet.
America Needs a 'Cheesehead' for President
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}WASHINGTON (AP) — The time has come for a "cheesehead" in the White House, although Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., doesn't know if he's the one to take that mantle.
He put his chances of seeking for the nomination in 2008 at "probably higher" than one in 100 while saying it was too early to commit to the race.
"But I do think one thing we can all agree on is that this country is overdue for a cheesehead president. We've never had one," he told ABC's "This Week."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}A cheesehead is a native or resident of Wisconsin, a leading dairy state. The term also refers to the yellow "cheese" wedges worn on the heads of Green Bay Packers football fans.
Feingold is mentioned as a possible candidate because of his anti-war views. He is among the Democrats in recent months who have visited New Hampshire, the site of the first presidential primary.
He voted October 2002 against a resolution authorizing the president to use force in Iraq and was the first senator to call for a timetable to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}I Wonder What She Will Do for Grad School?
DENTON, Texas (AP) — Seventy-one-year-old Virginia McNeill is finally getting her college degree — after three tries.
She first enrolled at the University of North Texas in 1951. She tried again in 1984. But in 2002, McNeill vowed to crack the books and keep at it until she graduated.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"People ask me what am I going to do with my degree, and I say 'I'm going to frame it,"' McNeill told the Denton Record-Chronicle. She is scheduled to graduate from the University of North Texas on Dec. 17.
McNeill said raising a family and running a family business forced her to postpone her education.
"Thank goodness there's not a statute of limitations on dreams," she said. "Time didn't run out on me, so I'm really lucky. I sure didn't expect it to take so long."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Compiled by FOXNews.com's Andrew Hard.
Got a good "Out There" story in your hometown? We'd like to know about it. Send an e-mail, with a Web link (we need to authenticate these things) to outthere@foxnews.com.