A pot-loving California man in court for marijuana possession is now considering giving up the weed – after the judge in his case, who is 22 years older, beat him in a game of basketball.

Alvaro Alvarez, 20, told Santa Ana Judge Marc Kelly that smoking dope made him a better basketball player. “Oh, yeah?” replied Kelly “I’m a 42-year-old man. I don’t think you can take me on.”

Kelly challenged Alvarez to a game of one-on-one and then beat him 10-3.

A man wearing a cooler over his head tried to hold up a store in Georgia, cops said.

Cops say Michael Pavlich grabbed a plastic foam cooler in an Augusta shop, punched a hole in it so he could see, placed it on his head and approached the counter, barking: “Everybody get your hands up!”

But a witness noticed the weapon was only a pellet pistol so he took it away and pushed Pavlich outside, cops said.

The government has refused an artist’s trademark application for his scrotum-shaped sculptures.

Jeff Tritel says his “American Brass Balls” are meant to be patriotic, not pornographic. But a federal trademark attorney nixed the application, saying the logo involved “immoral or scandalous matter.”

Tritel plans to appeal, arguing the brass balls don’t communicate sex but “an intrinsically American attitude.”

You can legally sunbathe nude in one Florida town – but go swimming naked and you could go to jail.

The double standard came to light when a developer wanted to create a clothing-optional area in Pompano Beach.

He discovered a 1958 “offenses against morals” code that restricts nude swimming and washing but says nothing about sunbathing.

But now, city commissioners say they intend to outlaw nude sunbathing in public places so the city won’t become one big nudist colony.

A Texas elementary school teacher taped her pupils’ mouths shut to make sure they stayed quiet in class.

Mary Griffin apologized and then resigned after complaints from the parents of 22 students at the Hilliard Elementary School in Houston.

Post Wire Services