PRESIDENTIAL HAIR STANDS UP TO SCRUTINY

For the first time, The Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia is displaying a scrapbook that has locks of hair from the first 12 U.S. presidents, from George Washington to Zachary Taylor. It will be on view Saturday through Monday.

The presidential "hair album" was assembled by Peter Arvell Browne, a Philadelphia attorney and scholar of the natural sciences who collected thousands of samples of animal fur and human hair in the 1840s and 1850s and organized them in a dozen leather-bound volumes.

Browne also wrote to presidents still living during his lifetime -- 1762-1860 -- and to the families of those who had died. His letters and their responses are included in the book, along with the strands of hair.

His hair requests weren't considered odd: Saving a loved one's locks in a family "hair album" was popular in the 19th century.

Because of the scrapbook's age and delicate contents, it will be displayed under glass and opened only to the page featuring George Washington's brown-and-gray locks. Photographs will be shown of the other presidents' hair.

Thomas Jefferson's hair was reddish with gray when he died, and James Monroe had dark curls.

Browne also acquired hair samples from Napoleon Bonaparte, Daniel Webster, many Pennsylvania governors and signers of the Declaration of Independence.

Not a snow day; a chicken day

Workers arriving to open Northeast High School in Philadelphia on Monday found dozens of hens and roosters wandering the hallways. The birds apparently were brought to the school over the weekend, school district spokesman Fernando Gallard said.

The floors were covered with droppings and chicken feed. Most of the school's 3,600 students were sent home for the day while the school was cleaned, he said.

A farmer was called to round up the birds and bring them to Fox Chase Farm, the district's agricultural school, Gallard said.

Police are checking surveillance tapes to see if they can identify the perpetrators. The culprit faces a hefty fine, Gallard said: "It's not going to be chicken scratch."

The cold war has ended

International Falls, Minn., is officially the "Icebox of the Nation."

The city on the Canadian border had been fighting the ski town of Fraser, Colo., for the legal right to the trademark. International Falls claimed victory last week when the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office sent the city attorney a certificate granting the community registration No. 3,375,139.

"I ran over to the attorney's office and kissed the certificate," Mayor Shawn Mason said.

Mason said more was at stake than bragging rights. She said International Falls has used the icebox title to market itself to industry as the nation's premier site for cold-weather testing.

City administrator Rod Otterness said International Falls would notify Fraser of the development. "If Fraser wants to call itself the Icebox of Colorado, we have no problem," Otterness said.

International Falls and Fraser have fought over the title before.

International Falls paid Fraser $2,000 in 1989 to drop its claim to the title. But when the Minnesota community of 6,500 people failed to renew its trademark, the Colorado town of 1,000 jumped.

Fraser Mayor Fran Cook said little will change even if Fraser's lawyers confirm defeat.

"It's something we've always gotten a kick out of and it will not disappear from the old-timers' lingo," she said.

Leading the world in pancakes

Thousands of people, including an official with Guinness World Records, helped to set a record on Saturday in Fargo, N.D., eating 34,818 pancakes on the 50th anniversary of The Kiwanis Club's Pancake Karnival fund-raiser.

Grillers served them with sausages and orange juice for most of the day, easily surpassing the 30,724 pancakes served in 2002 by the Lubbock, Texas, Lions Club.

The cost of the feast was being tallied.

Making the world safe for lawns

A 70-year-old woman in Orem, Utah, who was handcuffed and briefly jailed in July in a dispute over alleged lawn neglect agreed Friday to plead guilty to disorderly conduct and pay a $100 fine.

Betty Perry was scheduled to go to trial Feb. 4 on a more serious charge of resisting arrest for refusing to give her name, accept a citation or allow herself to be handcuffed on her front steps.

Prosecutor Andrew Peterson said he had planned to drop the lawn neglect charge anyway because Perry has started taking care of her lawn. But it was important for the city to get a conviction for Perry's "dangerous and violent" actions following an officer's attempt to cite her, he said.

During a struggle with officer Jim Flygare, Perry fell, injured her nose, rolled onto her stomach and put her hands under her to foil a handcuffing.