HARRISBURG, Pa. – Pennsylvania liquor store clerks need to be more bubbly when they’re selling Champagne.

The state’s Liquor Control Board is spending more than $173,000 to try to make workers friendlier and more well-mannered at the nearly 650 stores it operates. The board says it wants to make sure clerks are saying “hello,” “thank you” and “come again” to customers shopping for wine and spirits.

They have hired Pittsburgh-based consulting firm Solutions 21 to help coach store managers so they can instruct their clerks on issues such as how to greet customers and where to stand. Training begins this month.

Harrisburg good-government activist Eric Epstein calls the idea “a demented interpretation of happy hour.” He says it’s “a sad state of affairs when you have to train people to be kind and courteous.”

Man slips climbing power pole, saved by his pants

DULUTH, Ga. – Authorities say a Georgia man was saved by his pants when he decided to climb 35 feet up a power pole and slipped. The pants luckily caught on the metal tower, stopping his fall.

Gwinnett County Fire Department officials believe the 21-year-old man from Duluth, Ga., had been drinking and ignored a companion’s suggestion he had climbed far enough up the pole.

Officials did not identify the man.

After his pants caught, the man spent about two hours dangling before a rescue team climbed the tower and got him down.

No charges had been filed Saturday afternoon.

From Associated Press reports