Sunday, May 26, 2013

New Money Smells Like Maple Syrup




http://www.montrealgazette.com/business/Canadians+Bank+Canada+about+maple+syrup+smell+bank+notes/8437038/story.html

Montreal Gazette
26 May 2013


By Dean Beeby, The Canadian Press

OTTAWA - The penny may be history, but some Canadians suspect the Bank of Canada has been circulating a new scent along with its plastic bank notes.

Dozens of people who contacted the bank in the months after the polymer notes first appeared asked about a secret scratch-and-sniff patch that apparently smells like maple syrup. [...]

Saturday, May 18, 2013

Potpourri



Paul Anka with David Dalton, My Way (New York: St. Martin's Press, 2013), p. 220.

Things began to pick up for me recordwise when in 1971 I wrote "She's a Lady" for Tom Jones. The first meeting I had with Tom Jones, Engelbert Humperdinck, and Gordon Mills, their manager, they came to my home in New York and we tried to make a deal for my publishing company. It's late at night, and we were watching a movie at my house and they are all drinking champagne. The next day I woke up, looked in the living room, and my wife, being a significant decorator, and I were shocked to find all our bowls of potpourri empty. They had eaten all of it thinking it was potato chips.

Obese Hospital Patients Scanned at Zoos



http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/Zoo-always-gets-this-big-request-1824299.php

Houston Chronicle
31 Aug 2007


   By SALATHEIA BRYANT

[...] But perhaps one of the most unusual and persistent requests comes from physicians, or patients, who hope to borrow the [Houston Zoo's] MRI or CT scanners to examine obese people.

It's a long-standing urban legend that zoos have jumbo versions of such equipment to help diagnose illnesses in elephants and other huge creatures. But, to the disappointment of some doctors, zoo officials must tell them they have no such device.

During her five-day shift this week, zoo public affairs coordinator Cathy Kuntz logged four calls inquiring about an MRI scanner. She surveyed local medical facilities to determine what they have and what their weight limits are, and shared the information with callers.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/9649738/Obesity-crisis-will-force-hospitals-to-use-super-size-MRI-scanners-at-zoos.html

The Daily Telegraph [UK]
1 November 2012


By Stephen Adams, Medical Correspondent

NHS hospitals will have to use scanners from zoos because they are unable to cope with severely overweight patients, surgeons have predicted. [...]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/blog/2013/may/17/scanner-zoos-equipment-animals-obese

The Guardian [UK]
17 May 2013


The Guardian finds claims, counter-claims and outright denials as to whether overweight patients have been scanned at zoos

James Meikle

Urban myth or unacknowledged elephant in the room? A consultant working in the x-ray department at a west Midlands hospital has said London zoo had to scan patients who were too obese for NHS equipment. [...]

Monday, May 13, 2013

Mormons Like Big Boobs



The Reader's Digest, January 2000, p. 120.

During our church service one Sunday, a parishioner was speaking about an emotionally charged topic and had trouble controlling her tears. Finishing her remarks, she told the congregation, "I apologize for crying so much. I'm usually not such a big boob."

The bishop rose to close the session and remarked, "That's okay. We like big boobs." -- Contributed by L.S.

[Reprinted in Pamela Chichinskas-Johnson & Marianne Wait, eds., Laughter, The Best Medicine (Montreal: The Reader's Digest Association (Canada) Ltd., 2006), p. 105; Laughter, The Best Medicine: Holidays (New York & Montreal: The Reader's Digest Association, Inc., 2012), p. 191.]

D.N. Giles & C. L. Beck, Mormon Mishaps and Mischief: Hilarious Stories for Saints (Springville, Utah: CFI, 2009), p. xv.

Disclaimer

The authors of this book, as well as the contributors, have given you these stories as they remember them happening at the time. The humorous events described are real, although artistic license was allowed in coloring dialogue or minor details. [...]

Giles & Beck, Mormon Mishaps, p. 6.

Oops

By C. L. Beck

When touched by the Spirit, people often find it difficult to contain their emotions as they bear witness of the truthfulness of the gospel. One fast meeting, a sister stood to bear her testimony. Holding a Kleenex to damp eyes and struggling with her feelings, she said, "I don't do this very often because I'm such a big boob."

After she sat down, a member of the bishopric stepped to the pulpit. Offering what he thought was consolation, he said, "That's okay; we like big boobs."