That’s One Big Menorah

n Grand Rapids, Mich.

They thought it was a man hanging on for dear life. Instead, it was just a “Man Hanging Out.”

The life-sized sculpture of Sigmund Freud hanging from atop the Trade Center Building prompted calls to the police and fire departments Tuesday.

WZZM-TV reports the artwork by Czech sculptor David Cerny is suspended by one hand from a pole, seven stories up. It also has appeared in Prague and London and was in Chicago over the summer.

The police and fire departments say they weren’t informed of the statue’s placement, but the owner of an art gallery said she has a permit for it.

The Cerny sculpture will be in Grand Rapids until spring.

* New Orleans

What do you have with three of a kind and four of a kind? A full hospital.

Doctors at Ochsner Medical Center delivered triplet boys and quadruplet girls within 24 hours.

Pamela Kocke’s boys made their appearance early Tuesday, while Alisha Murphy’s girls began showing up about 12 hours later, according to a hospital news release. All were doing well Wednesday.

Linus, Oliver and Miles Kocke were delivered at 33 weeks and two days, the average gestation time for triplets. Babies born after 37 weeks’ gestation are considered full term.

The boys weigh from 4 pounds, 21/2 ounces to 4 pounds, 10 ounces. Doctors won’t know whether any of them are identical until they get lab results from the babies’ placentas, Voss said.

She said Murphy’s girls, Molly, Elizabeth, Margaret and Carolyn, were conceived by in-vitro fertilization.

An ultrasound early during the pregnancy found that two of the girls are identical twins, indicating one of three fertilized eggs split after it was implanted, said Murphy’s obstetrician, Dr. Sherri Longo. She didn’t know which two are identical.

The girls were delivered at 32 weeks, weighing from 3 pounds, 6 ounces to 4 pounds, 3 ounces. The average gestation for quadruplets is 291/2 weeks.

All the infants will stay in the neonatal intensive care unit for a few weeks – standard for premature babies.

* Long Beach, N.Y.

Residents didn’t want to have themselves a merry little Christmas tree. They wanted a big one.

When city officials planted a 7-foot-tall Christmas tree next to a 20-foot-tall menorah in the plaza in front of City Hall, some residents barked. They telephoned City Hall, wrote letters and testified at a public hearing that the tiny tree in the shadow of the huge Hanukkah symbol was an insult to Christians.

“What’s up with the giant menorah and the Charlie Brown Christmas tree?” resident Rick Hoffman asked.

City Manager Edwin Eaton said he had looked far and wide – all the way to Canada – for a bigger tree but couldn’t find one.

“This year is going to be kind of a ‘bah, humbug,’ Christmas,” Eaton had said.

But on Wednesday the city of about 35,000 residents 25 miles southeast of midtown Manhattan found a tree to match the 20-foot menorah: a 20-foot blue spruce.

The old tree, a Bacheri spruce, was pruned of its lights, dug up, and taken to a mall.

A lighting ceremony for the new tree is scheduled for Friday.

(c) 2007 Bismarck Tribune. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.