Fox Nearly Gives Golfers Strokes by Balling Things Up

--Longview Golf Course’s latest hazard is a quick red fox with a taste for golf balls. “He didn’t hesitate a minute. He came out, got my ball, made a little double move to put the ball deeper in his throat and grabbed another one,� Bob Spicer said. “He stopped and looked at me, then took off for the woods.� A few days later Spicer was playing the 11th hole in a threesome. All the golfers’ tee shots hit the green, and out came the fox. He grabbed Spicer’s ball and fled. “Nobody believed me the first time,� he said. “The second time, I had witnesses.� The Timonium, Md., course used to get one complaint about the fox every couple of weeks, starter Henry DeFries said. “Now it’s every day. Last Sunday, we had a senior tournament and the fox got three balls from one foursome. He must have 300 or 400 stashed away, if he hasn’t chewed them up.� Longview may call in animal control officers if the fox doesn’t stop teeing off on balls, but in the meantime the rules of golf treat the critter like a burrowing animal: If he takes a ball, the player may drop another and play it without penalty.

--Residents of a Tamarac, Fla., retirement community know what “Who’s Sorry Now?� means--now. They played the song at a 1981 dance, and a court has ordered them to pay the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers $250 for the song and for each of six other old copyright songs they played. The retirees were caught in the act by two undercover investigators for ASCAP, who paid the $3 admission charge along with 140 other patrons. “This is not just a bunch of folks sitting around the piano playing for their own amusement,� said Bernard Korman, general counsel for ASCAP. The copyright law allows people to play music in their homes without paying royalty fees. But the judge ruled that because ASCAP’s investigators were able to get into the dance, it was a public performance. “It’s just a blackmail fee against the condominium associations,� raged Bernard Hart, president of the homeowners’ group.

--When Robert James Downing’s dog disappeared, he went looking for it--on a bulldozer. Houston deputies said Downing stole the bulldozer from a construction site and drove it down several residential streets looking for his pit bull. Along the way, he allegedly tore up pavement, sewer ditches and driveways, causing an estimated $20,000 damage. “Why he chose to do this, I don’t know,� said his stepfather, Cecil Rhine. “He doesn’t remember doing all that.� Downing was charged with felony theft and felony criminal mischief and released on $14,000 bond. And the missing mutt? “The dog was waiting for him when he got back,� Sheriff’s Cpl. W. R. Gatewood said.