WhiteBoard News for Thursday, December 11, 2003
Manila, Philipines (Reuters):
An irate Filipino housewife sliced off her husband's penis while he slept after she discovered text messages from another woman on his mobile phone.
A local radio station reported the woman rushed her husband to hospital in Manila Thursday when large amounts of blood flowed from his wound, but that she forgot to bring the severed piece of flesh.
Doctors were able to restore his manhood after she raced home to collect the missing piece. The man, a welder, told the radio station he had forgiven his wife.
Callers to the station, reacting to the news, offered helpful hints to wayward husbands such as never sleeping on their backs and always keeping mobile phones tucked under the pillow.
================
New Milford, Connecticut (AP):
Courtesy counts in dealing with customers, but it also has paid off for a supermarket cashier who says a rude customer turned out to be worth $25,000.
A grumpy customer was the source of luck for Loretta Morris who works at the Northville Market.
"We have a policy in our store to ask for a driver's license when someone buys lottery tickets, cigarettes or alcohol," Morris said Tuesday.
But one customer last Tuesday decided not to produce a picture ID to purchase a $5 Silver Bells scratch-off Connecticut state lottery ticket.
Morris said the customer told her to "stick the ticket," when she asked for proof he was 18.
At the end of her shift she decided to just buy the ticket instead of putting it back and having a loose ticket in the store.
She took the ticket home where she scratched the ticket, which had three chances to win.
Morris had almost given up when the little scratch-off wrapped present and the Christmas tree didn't yield prizes, but the third little scratch-off box made her an instant winner.
On Friday, she and her husband traveled an hour to New Britain's lottery office and returned with a check for $17,501 after federal and state taxes.
===============
Sao Paulo, Brazil (Ananova):
A man who stole a police car from outside a police station in Brazil was arrested after he crashed into a tree only metres away.
The 23-year-old thief stole the marked police car from outside a police station in Sao Paulo.
Agora Sao Paulo reports that he crashed into a tree almost immediately and was trapped in the wreckage.
He had to wait until the police and firemen arrived in the scene to free him from the car.
The man was taken to hospital for treatment to minor injuries and then straight to prison in Guaruja, Sao Paulo.
A police spokesman said: "How funny! We were surprised when we realised one of our cars had been taken but I can't tell you how much more surprised we were when we saw the car crashed a few metres from the station with the criminal still inside it!"
=============
Halifax, Canada (Ananova):
Researchers have concluded that nursery rhymes show a cynical disregard for injuries, particularly to children.
Sarah Giles and Sarah Shea, from Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada, say Humpty Dumpty should have been put on a spinal board immediately after his big fall.
In a satirical letter to the Canadian Medical Association Journal, they added the presence of all the King's men suggests a "shocking lack of crowd control".
They ask: "Could the crowded scene explain the inability of the responders to put Humpty Dumpty together again?"
The pair argue that Rock-a-bye baby would have suffered serious injury in the fall from the tree, reports the Daily Telegraph.
The fact the child was in the tree in the first place suggests a reprehensible lack of parental responsibility.
They wrote: "Our study shows that not only do many nursery rhymes detail incidents that could have resulted in severe head injury but also that medical opinion is seldom sought."
They also criticise the rhyme about Jack and Jill for vagueness about the children's injuries and say that foul play could have killed off the old man in It's Raining it's Pouring.
=============
Chow
SuperChef
www.joeha.com