Friday Snippets and Soundbites

Good morning, ec fans! We hope you've had a wonderful week and are surviving the summer! (It's been HOT in Nashville. Hope you're staying cool wherever you are!)

Let's get this weekend started off right, with this week's edition of "Snippets and Soundbites." If this post doesn't provide enough news of the weird for you, check out page 38 in this month's (and every month's) issue of ec.

Now, let's see what strange things cropped up in the news this week!

What's that smell?
Jessica Zabala and Jonathan Smith are getting married tomorrow at the Houston Museum of Natural Science. That wouldn't be big news to anyone but their closest friends and family except that the rare "corpse flower" at the museum could be in full bloom during the couple's ceremony. The "corpse flower's” scientific name Amorphophallus titanum. It's a rare plant which has only ever bloomed 29 times in the United States and when it does so, the bloom's fragrance has been compared to the stench of dead bodies. Officials say the smell will dissipate about 12 hours after the bloom fully opens, but it was only 2/3 of the way open yesterday. Jessica and Jonathan are getting married in the next room and preparing for what could be a stinky wedding. Learn more here.

Luke. . . Give me all your money!

Maybe that's what a bank robber should have said when he donned a Darth Vader mask, marched into a NY bank and demanded money. The man entered a Chase bank branch on Long Island yesterday wearing the mask, a blue cape and camouflage pants. He displayed a gun and demanded money from the bank employees, escaping with an undetermined amount of cash. Apparently, it's been the month for strange bank robberies in NY. Police say Edward Pemberton used a bouquet of flowers to conceal a note demanding cash during a $440 bank heist July 15. They say he used a potted plant as a similar prop in a holdup at another bank earlier this month. Learn more here.

Where's my computer?
Sandra Bechthold liked her laptop. The 2-year-old Dell Inspiron met her needs and helped her do her work. Bechtold, the manager of an Idaho thrift store, brought the laptop to work with her earlier this moth, but had to work offsite that day. She left the store in the hands of volunteers and a staffer and left her laptop and case behind. Somehow, though, the laptop found its way into the store's donation room and was sold while Bechtold was offsite. For $5. Yep, $5, a price a volunteer decided upon because she'd once seen a laptop with no software sold for a similar price. When Bechtold returned to find her computer missing, she was shocked. She has placed a classified ad offering to buy the computer back. The moral of this story: take your laptop with you!