The Weird and the Wonderful

Tanja Hols, Janitor In German Library, Finds Historic Coins Possibly Worth Millions

From: http://www.huffingtonpost.com

 

Library janitor or Indiana Jones?

Tanja Höls, a custodian at the Passau state library in Germany, stumbled upon a box full of coins while on the job last week. Turns out, those coins are thousands of years old and could be worth millions.

“The box itself was fairly unspectacular, it looked like a big jewelry box, with lots of little drawers inside,” she told The Local.

When she told her bosses at the library, they were stunned. The library believes that the collection likely belonged to local prince-bishops, who hid the treasure in the library in the early 19th century to avoid paying taxes.

The gold and silver coins can be traced to ancient Rome, Greece and the Byzantine empires, according to the German Herald.

Höls, who had walked by the unassuming box many times before daring to open up, will be rewarded for her curiosity. A spokesman for the library told Der Spiegel that "she was very honest, a brilliant historian and a great detective. We are certainly going to promote her to the curating side of the museum and we're discussing a suitable reward for her."

Word of the Day

Stumble
stum·ble:\stəm-bəl\
Origin: Middle English, probably of Scandinavian origin; akin to Norwegian dialect stumle to stumble
First Known Use: 14th century
Verb
intransitive verb
1 a : to fall into sin or waywardness; b : to make an error : blunder; c : to come to an obstacle to belief
2: to trip in walking or running
3 a : to walk unsteadily or clumsily; b : to speak or act in a hesitant or faltering manner
4 a : to come unexpectedly or by chance <stumble onto the truth>; b : to fall or move carelessly
transitive verb
1: to cause to stumble : trip
2: bewilder, confound
Noun
an act or instance of stumbling

More Vocabulary

Avoid: v. to prevent the occurrence or effectiveness of
Curator: n. a person who is in charge of the things in a museum, zoo, etc.
Daring: adj. venturesomely bold in action or thought
Empire: n. a major political unit having a territory of great extent or a number of territories or peoples under a single sovereign authority
Fairly: adv. rather
Stun: v. to overcome especially with paralyzing astonishment or disbelief

The Weird and the Wonderful

Car Dealer Sued For Smelly SUV That May Have Once Held Dead Body

From: http://www.huffingtonpost.com

 

A couple from New Baltimore, Mich., is raising a stink with a car dealership for selling an SUV with what they say is a terrible odor -- and they believe it may have been caused by a dead body.

In March, Ruben and Margarita Salais purchased a 2006 Ford Explorer from Suburban Ford of Sterling Heights for $14,000. At first they thought they were getting a great deal, even if the SUV had a slight odor.

According to their lawyer, Dani Liblang, the couple noticed that off-putting odor grew worse as the weather warmed. Much worse.

"I got to smell it today," Liblang told HuffPost Weird News. "It smells like something rotted. It stinks to high heaven. Even the dealer thought it was a dead animal. They even offered a gas mask to my client after they refused to take the car back."

Jim Elder, manager of the car dealership, suggested instead that the stinky situation was a matter for the couple's insurance company.

"We had the car for 90 days on our lot, and we fixed it up and never noticed the smell," he told HuffPost Weird News. "They had the car 90 days before they came back. Basically, that was six months with no report of the smell."

But when the couple's insurance company, State Farm, was pulled in, things really started smelling funny, Liblang said.

"The insurance company did an investigation of the history of the vehicle, which showed that the car had been used as a rental vehicle and been stolen three times," she said. "But this was never reported to my clients."

Even more shocking was a hazmat team's finding about the source of the smell: According to the investigation, the smell was of "human origin."

The Salaises sued the car dealership on Nov. 1 for an unspecified amount "above $25,000" for failing to disclose that the vehicle had been a daily rental, had been stolen and recovered, and had previously contained a decomposed human body.

Elder said that his business is on the side of the customers, that the SUV was purchased from a reputable dealer, and that the Carfax report that came with it did not mention any thefts. He also noted that the dead body allegation is unproven.

"The hazmat team told me they couldn't prove a dead body had been there and said it might be a rotting steak," Elder said. "We want to make things right, but the [dead body] claim is something that hasn't been investigated."

Liblang was unaware of any criminal investigation related to the Explorer, but subpoenas have been sent to local police departments to try to determine what happened in that SUV, which she speculated was involved in a murder, according to Detroit.CBSLocal.com.

"I would think that's the only explanation," she said. "The hazmat company has said they found traces of blood."

Liblang hopes that the attention being paid to the case locally inspires the dealership to either buy back the car or exchange it for another vehicle.

Word of the Day

Odor: \ō-dər\
Origin: Middle English odour, from Anglo-French odur, from Latin odor; akin to Latin olēre to smell, Greek ozein to smell, osmē smell, odor
First Known Use: 13th century
Noun
1a : a quality of something that stimulates the olfactory organ : scent; b : a sensation resulting from adequate stimulation of the olfactory organ : smell2 a : a characteristic or predominant quality : flavor <the odor of sanctity>; b : repute, estimation <in bad odor>
3archaic : something that emits a sweet or pleasing scent : perfume
— odored adjective
— odor·less adjective

More Vocabulary

Allegation: n. an assertion unsupported and by implication regarded as unsupportable
Decompose: v. rot
Hazmat: n. a material (as flammable or poisonous material) that would be a danger to life or to the environment if released without precautions
Off-putting: adj. that puts one off : repellent, disconcerting
Origin: n. the point at which something begins or rises or from which it derives
Subpoena: n. the point at which something begins or rises or from which it derives

Idioms & Phrasal Verbs

Raise a stink: to complain angrily about something

• Parents really should raise a stink about violence on children's TV shows.

Stinks to high heaven: to smell very bad.

• What happened? This place stinks to high heaven.

The Weird and the Wonderful

Christmas Ornament Used As Weapon: Ruth Wagner Arrested For Allegedly Stabbing … Shopper

From: http://www.huffingtonpost.com

 

Guess if this woman is landing on Santa's naughty or nice list for allegedly stabbing a shopper with a Christmas ornament?

Police in Southington, Conn., claim that Ruth Wagner used a holiday decoration to slash another woman while fleeing from a craft fair vendor that accused her of shoplifting.

The vendor became suspicious of Wagner, because a piece of jewelry went missing near where the 55-year-old browsed on Sunday, The Hartford Courant reports.

The merchant then saw Wagner allegedly swipe a seashell ornament and yelled for others in the crowd to apprehend her, according to The Courant.

A woman who heard the merchant's pleas for help tried to block Wagner's path, but the supposed shoplifter stabbed her in the arm with the pilfered trinket, according to Southington police. A fragment broke from the ornament and left a wound serious enough that the victim needed surgery, The Courant says.

Witnesses jotted down Wagner's license plate, enabling police to track her to her home, where they arrested her later that day. Authorities charged Wagner with robbery, assault, reckless endangerment, larceny and breach of peace.

Word of the Day

Apprehend
ap·pre·hend: \a-pri-hend\
Origin: Middle English, from Latin apprehendere, literally, to seize, from ad- + prehendere to seize — more at get
First Known Use: 15th century
Verb
transitive verb
1: arrest, seize <apprehend a thief>
2 a : to become aware of : perceive; b : to anticipate especially with anxiety, dread, or fear
3: to grasp with the understanding : recognize the meaning of
intransitive verb
: understand, grasp

More Vocabulary

Breach of peace: n. a violation of the public peace, as by a riot, disturbance, etc.
Larceny: n. the unlawful taking of personal property with intent to deprive the rightful owner of it permanently
Ornament: n. a small, fancy object that is put on something else to make it more attractive
Pilfer: v. steal; especially: to steal stealthily in small amounts and often again and again
Shoplift: v. to steal displayed goods from a store
Trinket: n. a small ornament

The Weird and the Wonderful

Butt injection with 'Fix a Flat' leads to arrest

Transgender woman charged with posing as doctor in Miami area

From: www.mnsbc.com

A Miami Gardens transgender woman is facing charges of practicing medicine without a license after police say she injected a patient's rear with everything but the kitchen sink in an illegal cosmetic surgery procedure.

Oneal Ron Morris, 30, was arrested Friday after an investigation by Miami Gardens Police and the Florida Department of Health.

According to police, the victim saw Morris in May and was injected in her buttocks with a substance consisting of cement, "Fix a Flat," mineral oil and super glue.

The amateur incision was then sealed with super glue, police said. The victim was later hospitalized with a serious medical condition as a result of the injections.

Morris, who police say is a man but appears to look like a woman and sports an apparently enhanced rear herself in arrest photos, was being held on $7,500 bond. It was unknown whether she has an attorney.   

Police believe there may be other victims of Morris who may be afraid to come forward. They said the victims haven't done anything illegal and shouldn't be afraid to come forward.

Word of the Day

Amateur
am·a·teur:  \a-mə-tər, -tu̇r, -tyu̇r, -chu̇r, -chər\
Origin: French, from Latin amator lover, from amare to love
First Known Use: 1777
Noun
1: devotee, admirer
2: one who engages in a pursuit, study, science, or sport as a pastime rather than as a profession
3: one lacking in experience and competence in an art or science

More Vocabulary

Inject: v. to force a fluid into (as for medical purposes) <inject a drug into the bloodstream>
Rear: n. buttocks
Sport: v. to display or wear usually ostentatiously: boast <sporting expensive new shoes>
Transgender: adj. of, relating to, or being a person (as a transsexual or transvestite) who identifies with or expresses a gender identity that differs from the one which corresponds to the person's sex at birth

The Weird and the Wonderful

It's hubby vs. landfill in search for wife's $10,000 diamond ring 

From: www.huffingtonpost.com 

It was a simple but heartbreaking mistake.

Still, the story of how Brian McGuinn accidentally threw out his wife's $10,000 custom-made wedding ring has a happy ending. After plowing through dirty diapers, broken glass, and several unmentionables at the county landfill, the 34-year-old financial adviser found the family jewel.

The misadventure began Oct. 30 when McGuinn's wife, Anna, who is 5 months pregnant with their first child, handed him the ring to put in her jewelry box while she showered.

He grabbed it at the same time he was getting ready to throw out an old razor. Without thinking, he chucked both things in his hand.

"It was so thoughtless," he said.

The couple, married for five years, didn't realize the mistake until the next morning. By then, Waste Management had already collected the garbage from their Margate condo.

"The waterworks began," Anna McGuinn said. "My husband looked on in horror."

Desperate, Anna McGuinn, 31, called Wheelabrator North Broward — the division of Waste Management that processes the garbage. Officials there said her husband could come and search.

Plant worker Joel Ryan figured out where the ring would most likely be based on where that neighborhood's trash was dumped. Then he got McGuinn suited up: protective vest, goggles, a suit. He even leveled off a 10-foot pile to make it easy to search.

And he warned McGuinn: people coming to the county dump looking for items they accidentally tossed usually go home empty-handed.

Ryan said McGuinn was sifting and trudging through the county landfill — in unincorporated Broward near Pompano Beach — for more than 30 minutes.

"Nastiness you wouldn't believe," McGuinn said. "It was absolutely disgusting. It stunk beyond belief. The smell was God-awful. Everything unsanitary you could think of crossed my path at least a couple times. I took an extraordinarily long shower and toothbrushes were used."

But he found it — a tiny glimmer surrounded by black sludge wedged between two brown bags.

"It looked like a screw and I reached down and it looped around my index finger," he said. "I was ecstatic. It was like winning the lottery. It was probably one of the best moments ever."

He said he let out a whopping yell that made the Wheelabrator crew jump. "I think they were startled by the shrill I let out," he said.

Ryan was impressed. "Record time for sure," he said.

The moral of the story: "Perseverance," Brian McGuinn said. "A lot of people don't find things; it's gone. But I knew I had to try."

Word of the Day

Persevere
per·se·vere: \pər-sə-ˈvir\
Origin: Middle English, from Anglo-French parseverer, from Latin perseverare, from per- through + severus severe
First Known Use: 14th century
Verb
to persist in a state, enterprise, or undertaking in spite of counterinfluences, opposition, or discouragement

More Vocabulary

Chuck: v. discard
Glimmer: v. to appear indistinctly with a faintly luminous quality
Heartbreak: n. crushing grief, anguish, or distress
Sift: v. to go through especially to sort out what is useful or valuable
Sludge: n. a muddy or slushy mass, deposit, or sediment
Trudge: v. to walk or march steadily and usually laboriously
Waterworks: n.pl. the shedding of tears
Whopping: adj. extraordinary, incredible

Love those Phrasal Verbs!

Figure out: to understand; solve

• We couldn't figure out where all the money had gone.

Suite up: to dress in a uniform or special suit

• Alfred wants us to suit up before we enter the kitchen. He does not want food getting on our new uniforms.

Throw out: to cast away; remove; discard

• Could you throw out the trash, please?

The Weird and the Wonderful

Soy-Based Meals Are 'Cruel And Unusual Punishment,' Says Lawsuit From Florida Prisoner Eric Harris

From: www.huffingtonpost.com

Florida prisoner Eric Harris, 34, currently serving a life sentence for sexual battery on a child, has filed a lawsuit that claims serving soy-laden meals to inmates is a form of cruel and unusual punishment. 

According to the Orlando Sentinel, Harris claims that the meals of processed and blended soy foods, "have caused painful gastrointestinal cramping" which threaten the health of Harris' thyroid and immune system.

Typical dishes in Harris' Lake Correctional Institution, which include turkey dogs and sloppy Joes, consist of 50 percent soy and 50 percent poultry. Gretl Plessinger, a spokeswoman for the Department of Corrections, told the Sentinel that if soy products were eliminated, the cost to taxpayers would double for inmate food.

Harris' legal fees are being paid by the Weston A. Price Foundation, which, among other goals, discourages the use of soy in foods. The Foundation claims that 500 inmates have complained about the food since 2009, when the Florida prison system started using soy in prisoners' meals in order to cut costs.

According to a press release that was emailed to the Huffington Post by a spokesperson for the Foundation, the "incarcerated are suffering irreparable harm by being fed a high soy diet." The group is also involved in a similar lawsuit in Illinois, in which the lawsuit claims that, in addition to cruel and unusual punishment, feeding soy-based meals to prisoners is also a "denial of plaintiffs' liberty in violation of their due process rights under the fourteenth amendment to the Constitution."

While many sources would argue that soy protein is in fact, good for you, the Weston A. Price Foundation insists that the prison meals contain an excessive amount.

This lawsuit is only one of several recent controversies in the world of prison meals. Another involved the decision to serve prisoners only two meals per day. In October, a Muslim prisoner that claimed the Ohio prison system was denying him meals prepared according to Islamic law.

Word of the Day

Lade: \lād\
Origin: Middle English, from Old English hladan; akin to Old High German hladan to load, Old Church Slavic klasti to place
First Known Use: before 12th century
Verb
transitive verb
1a: to put a load or burden on or in : load; b : to put or place as a load especially for shipment : ship; c : to load heavily or oppressively
2: dip, ladle
intransitive verb
1: to take on cargo : load <a place for ships to lade>
2: to take up or convey a liquid by dipping

More Vocabulary

Cramp: n. sharp abdominal pain
Fourteenth Amendment: n. an amendment to the U.S. constitution, ratified in 1868, defining national citizenship and forbidding the states to restrict the basic rights of citizens or other persons
Incarcerate: v. to put in prison
Inmate: n. any of a group occupying a single place of residence; especially : a person confined (as in a prison or hospital)
Plaintiff: n. a person who sues another person or accuses another person of a crime in a court of law

The Wierd and the Wonderful

Woman Receives Parking Ticket For $44,500, After Police Officer Accidentally Notes Wrong Date 

From: www..huffingtonpost.com 

Everyone makes mistakes - even police officers. 

But one woman in Sicily was grateful for the error after receiving a parking ticket initially issued for $44,500, the AFP reports.

It turns out an officer accidentally noted the ticket was issued in 208 instead of 2008. Oops.

Police fessed up to the flub, and the woman's husband took care of the $144 violation, which now seems trivial by comparison. 

Word of the Day

Trivial
triv·i·al: \tri-vē-əl\
Origins: Latin trivialis found everywhere, commonplace, from trivium crossroads, from tri- + via way — more at way
First Known Use: 1589
Adjective
1 : commonplace, ordinary
2a : of little worth or importance <a trivial objection> <trivial problems> b : relating to or being the mathematically simplest case; specifically : characterized by having all variables equal to zero <a trivial solution to a linear equation>
3: specific

More Vocuabulary

Flub: n. blunder
Issue: v. to give (something) to someone in an official way
Note: n. to record or preserve in writing
Oops: interj. used typically to express mild apology, surprise, or dismay

Love those Phrasal Verbs

Fess up: Informal. to admit or concede, especially freely

• Would the person who put the wrong paper in the copier please fess up?

The Wierd and the Wonderful

Police: Man steals jewelry during break in robbery trial

From: www.msnbc.com

A crime caper has everyone in Franklin, Tenn., buzzing. A man is accused of ripping off a jewelry store during a lunch break in his trial for robbery.

"This is one of those compelling stories that leaves you scratching your head, and as you're walking away asking yourself, 'Did that really just happen?'" Franklin police Sgt. Charles Warner said.

Police say Mark Burgen reached over the counter at Walton's Antique Jewelry and helped himself to pockets full of diamond bracelets, about $30,000 worth.

As he was leaving the store, employee Julie Walton caught him with a stolen Rolex watch in hand. He handed it over, apologized, then fled, she said.

"Just had no common sense whatsoever is pretty much what it boils down to," Walton said.

Burgen had somewhere else to be at the time — in court. He was on trial for an armed robbery he allegedly committed in 2009.

Jewelry store owner Mike Walton can barely stand to see the surveillance tape.

"You would think he would be on his best behavior, but this guy I guess just can't contain himself," Walton said.

When Burgen returned to court for the rest of his hearing, Warner says he hid the loot in the bushes outside the courthouse, so as not to set off the building's metal detectors.

Officers quickly tracked Burgen down and arrested him for his latest stunt mere seconds after a jury found him guilty of his first.

Walton got most of his jewelry back and says he has since changed his showroom policies and hired a security guard and is now being extra vigilant about keeping all of his cabinets closed and locked.

Franklin police recently began a walking patrol program, and it was one of those officers who just happened to be in the right place at the right time to catch Burgen.

Word of the Day

Caper
ca·per: \ˈkā-pər\
Origin: back-formation from earlier capers (taken as a plural), from Middle English caperis, from Latin capparis, from Greek kapparis
First Known Use: 14th century

Noun
1any of a genus (Capparis of the family Capparidaceae, the caper family) of low prickly shrubs of the Mediterranean region; especiall : one (C. spinosa) cultivated for its buds
2: one of the greenish flower buds or young berries of the caper pickled and used as a seasoning or garnish
3: a frolicsome leap
4: a capricious escapade : prank
5: an illegal or questionable act; especially : theft

More Vocabulary

Alleged: adj. questionably true or of a specified kind: supposed, so-called
Compelling: adj. forceful
Loot: n. something appropriated illegally often by force or violence
Mere: adj. being nothing more than

Love those Phrasal Verbs

Rip off: to steal or pilfer

• I can’t believe that my lunch was ripped off right from the cafeteria’s refrigerator.

Idioms & Phrases

Boils down to (something): to be reduced to its essentials.

• It boils down to the question of who is going to win.

The Wierd and the Wonderful

Sexy Chicken ruffles feathers, is now on Twitter

From: www.msnbc.com

The chicken that was just too sexy for her skin now has a voice, thanks to Twitter.

It all started when an image of a naked chicken, propped up like a '70s centerfold (bow-chicka-bow-wow), was featured as art Tuesday on an accompanying New York Times story about a growing obsession among chefs for crispy, greasy, tasty chicken skin.

While the image was buzzing (clucking?) all over Twitter, by Wednesday, PETA’s feathers were ruffled. The animal rights organization was not amused by the image, calling it “downright offensive.”

"When I saw it I just couldn't believe that an editor of The New York Times would find it acceptable," PETA's founder and president, Ingrid Newkirk, told The Atlantic Wire. "It's a plucked, beheaded, young chicken in a young pose," she said.

But New York Times editors said it was just art. "My original concept was sort of a languid nude,” said Dining photo editor Tiina Loite, in a Times’ Lens blog post that shed more light on the story behind the sexy chicken. “Once [photographer Tony Cenicola] propped it up, it became a completely different vibe. The chicken had attitude.”

Then, Thursday night, using the Twitter handle @NYTchicken, Sexy Chicken started speaking up for herself. And, well, this chick’s got game…

Word of the Day

Languid
lan·guid: \ˈlaŋ-gwəd\
Origin: Middle French languide, from Latin languidus, from languēre to languish — more at slack
First Known Use: 1597
Adjective
1: drooping or flagging from or as if from exhaustion : weak
2: sluggish in character or disposition : listless
3: lacking force or quickness of movement : slow

More Vocabulary

Behead: v. o cut off the head of : decapitate
Centerfold: n. a picture (as of a nude) on a centerfold; also : a model featured in such a picture
Cluck: v. to express interest or concern
Downright: adv. absolutely
Handle: n. nickname
Pluck: v. to pull off or out from the place of growth, as fruit, flowers, feathers, etc
Vibe: n. (informal) a feeling that someone or something gives you

Idioms & Phrases

Ruffle (someone’s) feathers: to make someone annoyed or upset.

• Her spokeswoman wouldn't say whether the lawsuit has ruffled the singer's feathers.

Shed light on something: to make something clearer.

• Experts hope the plane's flight recorders will shed light on the cause of the crash.