A jilted bride throws a party, and more

A jilted bride throws a party

Six days before Teanne Harris was to get married in a Halloween-themed wedding in Des Plaines, Ill., her groom got cold feet. Left with all manner of decorations, flowers, and other wedding paraphernalia, Harris decided to donate them to the nearby Asbury Court Retirement Community for a free party. More than 300 of the retirement home’s residents attended, dancing to a DJ and dressing in costumes ranging from Raggedy Ann to Dracula. “We were thrilled,” said Mary Eichenfeld, an Asbury employee. “She’s an angel. She came down and gave us a beautiful party out of nowhere.”

Terri White's detour back to Broadway

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Terri White, 61, began acting when she was 8, and in 1980, she performed opposite Glenn Close in Barnum on Broadway. But in the summer of 2008, as the piano bars where she made her living kept closing down, she was evicted from her apartment. At one point she slept on a bench in Manhattan’s Washington Square Park. Then friends got her nightclub work in Florida and her life began turning around. Last week White was back on Broadway as Dottie in the current revival of Finian’s Rainbow. Now, when she sings, “There ought to be a law against necessity,” the cast sings back, with special feeling, “Sister, you’re so right.”

Colorado man combs landfill for lost BlackBerry

While Bill Boyd of Aspen, Colo., was raking his yard last week, his BlackBerry fell out of his pocket. After realizing it was missing, he guessed he might have scooped it into a bag of leaves that he had dropped off at the local recycling center. But by the time he contacted city officials, the leaves had already been dumped at the Pitkin County Landfill. Within half an hour of combing through the mess, and ringing his BlackBerry with his girlfriend’s cell phone, Boyd recovered it. “It’s lucky for him that was a recycle pile,” said an attendant.