Dear Ann Landers,
ome good friends of mine insist that cows sleep standing up and that it is possible to sneak up from behind and tip them over. I asked my dad about this, and he thought it was the funniest thing he'd ever heard. When he finally stopped laughing, I asked if it was really possible to tip over a cow. He replied, "Absolutely not. Some-body's kidding you." Will you please tell me if there is such a thing as "cow tipping," or are my friends pulling my leg? -Flora in Cincinnati

Dear Flora,
We checked with LuAnne Metzger, farm curator of Chicago's Lincoln Park Zoo, who assured us that cows sleep lying down. She also said, "It is not a good idea to try to tip a cow over be-cause they do kick, and the results could be extremely unpleasant." We then checked with Doug Houghton, assistant dean of students at Iowa State University. The Department of Dairy Sciences said cows sleep lying down but can "doze" standing up. The dean said he had heard of cow tipping but thought it was just a gag to get kids out in the pasture and leave them stranded, like "snipe-hunting" in the '60s. We then called the University of Wisconsin. The administration there echoed the sentiments of the faculty at Iowa State. A better au-thority, however, the students in a fraternity house, said cow tipping is a common form of recreation, and it takes about four husky students to tip over a cow. Our source added, "So far as we know, the cows don't get hurt, but they do get pretty darned mad." Dick James of Verdon, Neb, past president of the Nebraska State Dairy Association, said cows do not have a sense of humor and do not enjoy being knocked over. Such stress can result in reduced milk pro-duction and poor growth. The word from here, students, is this: If you want to go in for tip-ping, tip the waitress, but leave the cows alone.