• Ill. cabbie sprays deodorant to disarm attacker

ELGIN, Ill. (AP) — Police in suburban Chicago say a taxi driver who didn’t have Mace handy when he was attacked by a knife-wielding passenger instead disarmed the man with a can of aerosol deodorant.

Elgin Deputy Police Chief Jeff Swoboda says the 51-year-old cabbie picked up the male passenger early Thursday outside a casino. Swoboda said the driver grew suspicious when the man offered several destinations, so he surreptitiously placed the small can of deodorant between his legs.

Shortly afterward, the passenger put a knife to the driver’s neck and demanded money. The cabbie sprayed the deodorant in the man’s eyes, causing him to drop the knife.

Swoboda says the man punched the driver before fleeing, but didn’t seriously injure him.

Swoboda declined to identify the driver.

• Pachyderms outdo people in cross-species chow bout

NEW YORK (AP) — In the fight of pachyderms vs. people — the pachyderms now have the upper trunk.

Three circus elephants scored a decisive victory over three human competitive eaters at a cross-species eating contest Friday, chomping down on 505 hot dog buns in six minutes. The humans forced down only 143 buns in the bout at Brooklyn’s Coney Island.

The elephants, Bunny, Susie and Minnie — all in their 40s — ate at what appeared to be a leisurely pace from behind a table piled high with buns. They even paused to eat some fresh fruit, which was not counted toward scoring.

Their human competitors were far more focused. Eric “Badlands” Booker, a New York City subway conductor who is the world champion in corned beef hash eating, took a double-fisted approach, dipping two buns at once into liquid to make them go down easier.

Juliet Lee, a petite 43-year-old who started the contest with her midriff exposed, pushed several buns into her stretched mouth simultaneously. Originally from China, Lee is the world cranberry sauce champion, a title she won by eating 13.23 pounds of the sauce in eight minutes.