WhiteBoard News for Wednesday, November 14, 2001

New York, New York (Reuters):

Even Santa likes a discount.

So this year, Victoria's Secret wants to give him one.

The Heavenly Star Bra, this year's Christmas fantasy gift, costs a whopping $2.5 million LESS than last year's $15 million rubies-and-diamond bra, panty and belt from Victoria's Secret.

For Santas who keep an eye on the bottom line, the Columbus, Ohio-based retailer offers this option: Matching panties priced separately.

More than 1,200 pink sapphires (yes, PINK!) and more than 2,300 diamonds cover the Heavenly Star Bra.

Price? Bra, $12.5 million. Panty, $750,000.

Together, the 2001 Heavenly Star bra and panty are still a bargain -- $1.75 million less than the Christmas 2000 set.

"It was not a reflection of the economy," Victoria's Secret spokeswoman Marnie McLaughlin told Reuters, referring to the slightly lower price of this year's fantasy lingerie. "We started working on this last spring, before the downturn."

For would-be Santas, she has a shopping tip: "If a gentleman wants to give this to someone, he should buy both."

Victoria's Secret, the lingerie and beauty products retailer owned by Intimate Brands, started its holiday tradition several years ago by commissioning the creation of a jeweled fantasy bra costing $1 million or more to feature in its Christmas Dreams and Fantasy catalog. That rustling of pages across America may be from the 2001 catalog, which began arriving in U.S. mailboxes Nov. 1.

Has anyone ever bought the bra?

"We've come close," McLaughlin said, laughing. "Every year, we get tens of thousands of calls about the Fantasy Bra from all over the world."

Santa, be prepared to pay by certified check. Delivery is by armored truck.
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Oslo, Norway (Dagens Naeringsliv):

A Norwegian composer is making music using noises recorded at a sewage treatment plant in Oslo.

The city's 280,000 residents will generate noises in the plant every time they take a shower or flush a toilet.

Arne Nordheim has attached leads to a computer and plans to air the recorded sounds on 32 strategically placed loudspeakers below ground.

Aftenposten quotes Mr Nordheim telling Dagens Næringsliv newspaper that he has studied the audio workings of the plant.

He says there is a clear distinction between the level of activity before and after the main evening news.

Anyone wanting to hear the music will have to visit the Bekkelaget plant because the avante-garde artist is not planning to release a CD.

Mr Nordheim says it would be hard to publish the sounds because the ongoing nature of the work means it will be constantly changing.
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Anchorage, Alaska (Seattle Times):

A truckload of Alaska snow is headed to Puerto Rico so children there can build snowmen. And there's more where that came from. 

On Sunday, workers loaded more than 32 tons of snow from an Anchorage parking lot into a tractor-trailer truck. After loading up the truck, they locked the doors, cooled the trailer to 10 degrees and began the long drive to Elizabeth, N.J., where the shipment will be loaded onto a containership for San Juan. 

Once there, the load will be dumped on the floor of a refrigerated warehouse so children can play in the snow, for a price. 

"It sounded a little nuts to me," said Chris Couch, co-owner of Crouch Plowing & Removal, who got the call to help with the load. 

Export company Transport Partners of Quispamsis, New Brunswick, organized the snow-lift. The Canadian company specializes in exports to Central America. Each November, the company ships seven truckloads of snow to Puerto Rico for the annual carnival celebrations. 

Snow can usually be found on Canada's east coast by November. But as the due date loomed earlier this month, Matt Brown, who is coordinating the snow-lift for the company, faced few choices. Canada's Maritime Provinces were dry. The Rockies, Alberta, British Columbia and even the arctic Northwest Territories had little snow. 

"Factor in logistics of finding a freezer truck, and Anchorage was the closest place we could find," Brown said. 

Labrador has since been hit by a snowstorm, and Brown plans to get six truckloads there. But to ensure the carnival has enough snow, Brown wanted the Alaska shipment. The 32-1/2 tons -- 65,000 pounds -- of Alaska snow costs 50 cents a pound to get to Puerto Rico. Event organizers will charge $10 for access to it. 
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Ankara, Turkey (Independent Online News):

State family planning officials in the eastern Turkish town of Siverek have discovered one reason why their efforts to bring the size of village families down has failed: women have been using their contraceptive pills as fertiliser for growing flowers. 

The daily Radikal newspaper on Monday reported that according to a survey carried out by municipal authorities, many of the villagers prefer to have large families in order to strengthen their own clan's numbers as well as the traditional desire to have sons to look after them in their old age. 

The survey found that while the number of men using condoms had increased in recent years, the number of women using contraceptive implants had fallen. 

The report said that many women who had been given contraceptive pills believed that they worked well as fertiliser for the growing of flowers. 
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Enfield, Connecticut (AP):

A Wiccan ritual designed to burn away Mary Palmieri's problems instead began a fire that left her homeless, fire officials said. 

Palmieri, 44, told the Journal Inquirer of Manchester she allowed two pagan friends to perform the "cleansing ritual" Saturday, in an attempt to rid her of pain and other problems caused by a hiatal hernia. 

But the ceremony, in which the Wiccans burned a piece of paper with Palmieri's problems written on it, went awry. 

Fire Marshal Paul Censki said that either a candle or the piece of paper started a blaze that gutted Palmieri's bedroom and caused extensive smoke and water damage to the house. 

"In a roundabout way, it was accidental," Censki said. 

Palmieri, a member of a local Christian church, the Love and Hope Ministries, said she plans to rebuild the home and is through with Wiccan rituals. Wicca is the doctrines and practices of witchcraft. 

"From now on, I will go to my pastor," she said. 
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Vernon, Connecticut (AP):

A potent kiss has led to two years of probation for a New Britain woman. 

Barbara Crump, 49, admitted in Vernon Superior Court on Tuesday that she passed heroin in a kiss to her inmate husband at the Osborn Correctional Institution in Somers in February. 

Crump pleaded guilty to unauthorized conveyance of a controlled substance in a correctional institution. Judge Jane Scholl handed down the probation, which was part of a plea bargain. 

According to court documents, Crump put seven packets of heroin into a balloon, which she put in her mouth and passed to her husband, Mark Crump, during a kiss in the visitor's section of the prison. 

Barbara Crump later told authorities that a fellow inmate said her husband needed money or drugs to pay a debt, according to court records. 

Mark Crump, now an inmate at the Corrigan Correctional Institution in Montville, is serving the remainder of a six-year drug sentence, a Department of Correction spokesman said Wednesday 

Prosecutors added a year onto Mark Crump's drug sentence after he was convicted of possession of narcotics. 
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Cumbria, England (Ananova):

Contenders are preparing to con the judges at the World's Biggest Liar Competition.

Farmer John Graham won last year's contest with a story about rats escaping in a speedboat.

The event in Cumbria was inspired by a local publican who entertained customers with tales of giant turnips.

Thursday's final at The Bridge Inn, Wasdale Valley, has been sold out for weeks.

The 10 finalists each get a chance to impress the judges. The contest is in its 29th year and has attracted liars from across the world.

Civic events manager Ian Congdon told Ananova: "Unfortunately there are no foreign finalists this year, but we're still expecting a 120 capacity crowd.

"We've had some pretty tall tales in the past. Last year's winner described how he chased a pair of huge rats around the Solway Firth.

"They escaped in speedboats, so he enlisted the help of the Japanese Navy, who were delivering plutonium to the area."

Other past 'facts' include the Lake District being formed by voles and eels, a man who wanted to build a floating hotel and the exploits of a one-legged mountain rescue worker.

The competition was inspired by 19th Century publican Will Ritson. He claimed the turnips in Wasdale were so big that locals scooped them out and used them as sheds for their sheep.
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