South Texas sports legend dies at age 81
 
Dan Cook, a San Antonio institution whose career as a sports writer and broadcaster spanned more than a half-century, died at age 81. Cook was credited with popularizing the phrase “The opera ain’t over till the fat lady sings” while discussing a 1978 playoff series between the Spurs and the Washington Bullets.

The Benjamin P. Broadhind take: Cook wrote more than 10,000 columns in his career. Just 9,928 to go before News Nuggets catches up.

We’ll miss ya, Dan.

Miniature dachshund chews off owner’s toe
 
An Illinois woman says her miniature dachshund gnawed off her right big toe while she was asleep.

Linda Floyd said that her beloved Roscoe was euthanized because of safety concerns. The 56-year-old says she has no feeling in her toes because of nerve damage from diabetes. A veterinarian says the toe had been bandaged because of a healing hangnail. That might have somehow attracted the dog.

The 210 take: This gives a whole new meaning to the term “July Fourth hot dog eating contest.”

Hitler gets decapitated: Man whacks wax figure
 
A man tore off the head of a wax figure of Adolf Hitler at Madame Tussauds’ new branch in Berlin in what appeared to be a symbolic protest at the museum’s opening. Police said the man had shoved aside two museum employees and then ripped the head off the likeness of Hitler.

The 210 take: The beheading sparked a rash of wax figures being punished for their real counterparts’ crimes. In S.A., the Sandra Bullock statue at the Plaza Wax Museum was barred from making any more “Miss Congeniality” movies.

These guys aren’t your typical S.A. tourists

Three Americans held hostage for five years in the Colombian jungle were reunited with their families at Fort Sam Houston. The three U.S. military contractors and a dozen other hostages were freed when Colombian spies tricked leftist rebels into handing them over. The men had been held in a series of jungle prisons after their drug-surveillance plane crashed in 2003.
 
The 210 take: Upon hearing that they’d be in S.A. for several days, the ex-hostages said, “We heard Dallas has a better airport. Can we go there instead?”

Drug suspect dumps $100,000 loot on Loop

Motorists making a mad scramble for cash littering a busy freeway brought traffic to a standstill after a suspect in drug dealing tossed a load of money from a car window and onto Loop 410 near North Star Mall. Even though there was as much as $100,000 in the box of cash, the distraction didn’t work — authorities later caught the suspect after the car he was in collided with two other vehicles at Broadway and Wetmore Road.

The 210 take: Oh, sure, the ONE time I beat the traffic jam on 410 .....