After a six hour chase that included dodging cars, a game of chicken with a train, and a dip in the icy Missouri River, an escaped cow was recaptured with three tranquilizer darts. The black, 1,200-pound heifer jumped a gate at a slaughterhouse at around 5 a. m. Thursday.

Bittersweet irony strikes again. A bowler collapses and dies after bowling the third perfect game of his life. Ed Lorenz, 69, rolled a 300 game Wednesday in his first league game of the night at Airway Lanes. When he got up for his turn during the fifth frame of his second game, he grabbed his chest and keeled over, all efforts to revive him failed.

A fisherman was surprised to find the rainbow trout he pulled out of Nebraska's Holmes Lake last weekend had two mouths. Clarence Olberding, 57, called over another angler just to be sure he was seeing clearly.

At a "Ladies' Night" at the Manchester Monarchs' hockey game, a local jeweler gave away a $2,500 diamond, only to have the winner lose it, then find it again. Jeweler David Bellman gave 1,000 women in attendance; one contained the half-carat diamond, while the others held fake diamonds (cubic zirconia).

"Some people may say it's goofy. I don't think it is," says, Konieczka, who paints his animals every bear and deer season to keep them safe.