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Odds & Ends
By Devin D. O'Leary
MAY 17, 1999:
Dateline: South Africa--South African police announced
last Monday that they were following the trail of a 186-carat
diamond stolen by a miner after a sorting machine spit it out
as junk. The egg-sized diamond, estimated to be worth more than
$2 million, is believed to have been smuggled to the Belgian diamond
cutting center of Antwerp. According to police, the sorting machine
at a mine southwest of Johannesburg thought the massive diamond
was just a large piece of rock. An unnamed miner picked up the
giant gem from the rubble pile and allegedly sold it to two brothers
who ran a chain of bars. The miner, who has subsequently disappeared,
sold the stone for a meager 30,000 rand ($4,950). Police have
already arrested six other people for on-selling the diamond,
which soared from 30,000 rand to 12 million rand before it even
left the country.
Dateline: England--British Airways has decided to take
no disciplinary action against a stewardess who lent new meaning
to the term "landing strip" by streaking around Italy's
Genoa airport. Andrea O'Neill, 31, apparently lost a bet to her
captain on the London to Genoa flight and performed the racy stunt
for "a bit of a giggle." British Airways has been on
a drive to improve punctuality, and O'Neill bet the pilot that
he couldn't land ahead of schedule at Genoa's Christopher Columbus
airport last Sunday night. The plane pulled in 10 minutes ahead
of schedule and, true to the conditions of her wager, O'Neill
stripped down to her panties, the captain's hat and a yellow flight
vest. The stewardess then descended the gangplank, raced around
the airplane and returned to step back into uniform and greet
passengers traveling to London's Gatwick airport.
Dateline: England--According to The Daily Telegraph,
Britain's biggest supermarket chain has asked growers to supply
smaller melons after research showed woman shoppers subconsciously
compared them to the size of their own breasts. Buyers for the
Tesco chain were told by a "retail psychologist" that
a current preference for smaller breasts was the reason why traditional
big, fleshy melons were going unsold. According to the psychologist's
research, seven out of 10 women questioned agreed breast size
was "the most likely subconscious factor when selecting size
of melon." According to a Tesco spokesman, since introducing
the smaller melons two months ago, the company has sold more than
a million of the fruits.
Dateline: Pennsylvania--The Shoestrings shoe store thought
they had come up with a clever ad campaign when they posted a
14-by-48-feet vinyl sign to a billboard near the North Scranton
Expressway reading, "Bring in this ad and you'll get a free
pair of shoes." Unfortunately, three Scranton residents took
the shoe store at its word, scaled the billboard and removed the
70-pound banner. Chancellor Media Group, which installed the sign,
has agreed to pay for three pairs of shoes after the trio went
to Shoestrings with the billboard in tow. The store's new billboard
will be accompanied by a disclaimer.
Dateline: Tennessee--Two angry consumers are suing Wal-Mart,
claiming they were injured in the last holiday season's infamous
Furby riots. Sherry Smith and Jacquiline Dyer allege in a federal
lawsuit that Wal-Mart didn't properly manage the crowd that gathered
outside a Nashville, Tenn., store the day after Thanksgiving to
get their hands on one of the plush, talking Furbies. Attorney
Joseph M. Dalton, who represents both Smith and Dyer, claims that
some 200 people stormed into the store looking for one of the
digital gremlins. In the ensuing stampede, Smith allegedly suffered
a dislocated jaw and Dyer a knee injury. The women are asking
for $250,000 each in compensatory damages, personal injuries,
physical pain, suffering and mental anguish. If the women triumph
in their lawsuit, it is expected that they will blow the entire
half-million dollar settlement on Beanie Babies.
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