The Odd Truth, June 14, 2004
The Odd Truth is a collection of strange but factual news stories from around the world compiled by CBSNews.com's Brian Bernbaum.
World's Longest Poker Game
HARTFORD, Conn. - You can reasonably bet that Larry Olmsted is pretty sick of seven-card stud.
The Vermont native sat at a poker table at Foxwoods Resort Casino at Mashantucket at 1:22 p.m. Thursday and remained there for the next 72 hours, taking occasional bathroom breaks but never leaving the poker area.
Olmsted's feat was intended to set the record for the longest casino poker session, one that has yet to be certified by Guinness World Records to become official.
"It's not for the girls, and not the money. It's for the glory," Olmsted said.
Under Guinness rules, Olmsted, 38, was required to play almost every hand, except for one 15-minute break every eight hours.
He sat down with $100 in poker chips and ended with around $1,000 in winnings, although he gave most of it away in tips to the Foxwoods staff. He played seven-card stud, with a 50-cent ante and a $1 forced bet with a $5 max.
He ate cheeseburgers and grilled cheese sandwiches at the poker table and drank more than 30 cups of coffee, six iced teas, four strawberry shakes and a couple of spicy Virgin Marys.
Olmsted's concentration waned in the last 12 hours, as did his ability to stay awake.
"I got to a point where I couldn't read the numbers on the cards," he said.
Catholic Church Divided, Into Luxury Condos
BOSTON - Some Boston residents are upset that a developer has split the inside of the 160-year-old St. Peter and Paul's Catholic Church into 36 luxury condominiums.
The condos are priced from $300,000 for a one-bedroom unit to $1.2 million for a penthouse with cathedral ceilings and the church's bell tower.
The Boston Archdiocese is putting 60 churches up for sale amid a financial crisis caused in part by settlements of sex abuse suits.
The developers kept the outside of St. Peter and Paul's virtually intact, but split the vast interior into five floors. They kept the church's wooden arches and stained-glass windows but added stainless steel appliances, Jacuzzi tubs, skylights and granite countertops.
Metal Rods Swallowed In Drunken Bet
HANOI, Vietnam - Vietnamese doctors removed three metal construction rods from a man's stomach about a month after he swallowed them in a rice whiskey drinking challenge, an official said Monday.
Huynh Ngoc Son, 22, swallowed the rods, which were 6.7 inches long and five millimeters thick, after being dared by his drinking buddies in mid-May, said Dr. Le Quang Nghia of Binh Dan Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City.
Son went to the hospital last week complaining of serious stomach pains, and X-rays revealed the construction bars were lodged in his stomach, Nghia said.
The rods were removed during a 30-minute operation, and Son's stomach was not seriously damaged by the ordeal, Nghia said.
Son was in stable condition Monday and was expected to be discharged from the hospital this week, he said.
23-Acre Lake Disappears Overnight
WILDWOOD, Mo. - To people around Wildwood, it is nothing but freaky: an entire 23-acre lake vanished in a matter of days, as if someone pulled the plug on a bathtub.
Lake Chesterfield went down a sinkhole this week, leaving homeowners in this affluent suburb wondering if their property values disappeared along with their lakeside views. The town is about 25 miles west of St. Louis.
"It's real creepy," said Donna Ripp, who lives near what had been Lake Chesterfield. "That lake was 23 acres - no small lake. And to wake up one morning, drive by and it's gone?"
What once was an oasis for waterfowl and sailboats was nothing but a muddy, crackled pit outlined by rotting fish.
The sight had 74-year-old George English scratching his head.
"It's disheartening, getting out on your deck and seeing this," he said as he stood next to wife, Betty, and the "lakeside" condominium they bought in 1996 for its view. "One day it's a beautiful lake and now, bingo, it's gone."
Some residents said they noticed that the lake, after being swelled by torrential rains weeks earlier, began falling last weekend. The Englishes said they noticed the drop-off Monday.
By Wednesday, the manmade lake - normally 7 to 10 feet deep in spots - had been reduced to a mucky, stinky mess.
David Taylor, a geologist who inspected the lakebed Wednesday, told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that the sinkhole was formed when water eroded the limestone deep underground and created pockets in the rock. The sinkhole was "like a ticking time bomb."
Korean Dumpling Kingpin Jumps To His Death
SEOUL, South Korea - The head of a food company jumped to his death after a government investigation found that his company sold dumplings made with rotten ingredients, police said Monday.
A witness said he saw the man jump from a bridge in Seoul's Han River on Sunday, a police official said. Police have yet to find the body but found his identification card and a recently written will.
He was identified in media reports only by his family name, Shin - the head of Vision Food, a dumpling company.
Last week, South Korea's Food and Drug Administration announced that at least 12 companies had been using rotten radishes in their frozen dumplings and ordered the dumplings pulled off the shelves.
The government has confiscated 20 tons of what the local press dubbed "garbage dumplings."
In his will, Shin said that he faced economic difficulties with creditors following the dumpling scandal, the Yonhap news agency said. He wrote his dumplings were harmless to people.
No illnesses have been reported from the dumplings. But department stores have said that dumpling sales have dropped by up to 90 percent.
Would-Be Smuggler Swallowed 3.5 Pounds Of Cocaine
OSLO, Norway - A would-be smuggler was caught in southern Norway with 3.5 pounds of cocaine in his stomach, customs officials said Monday.
The man, who landed in southern Norway earlier this year seeking asylum, had swallowed 160 small bags of the drug, said Per Emil Wikoeren, head the Customs Region Southern Norway.
Originally from Nigeria and in his 20s, he was detained upon arriving from Madrid at the small airport near Kristiansand in late May.
Suspicious, customs authorities sent him to be examined. Hospital personnel were stunned when X-ray images showed dozens of bags of cocaine in his stomach.
"That is a Norwegian record and we have found nothing in our databases to indicate that anywhere in this world has anyone swallowed 3.5 pounds," Wikoeren told state radio network NRK.
It took three days before the bags all passed safely out of his body and were recovered, he said.
"It was a terrible risk. If any of these packages had leaked, it would have resulted in death," Wikoeren said. "He said he spent hours swallowing the packages."
Wikoeren declined to estimate the value of the cocaine. The customs service withheld information about the find until Monday to protect the investigation.
The suspect's identity was being withheld during the investigation in keeping with Norwegian practice.
His request for asylum was denied, and he was being held at a refugee center near Kristiansand, some 150 miles south of Oslo, Wikoeren said.
Man Sentenced In Macaw Attack
NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. - A man who attacked his pet macaw, breaking its beak and leg, must complete 120 days of community service and take anger management classes, a judge ruled.
Anthony James Ellis, 53, had been sentenced to 120 days in jail but Orange County Superior Court Judge Susanne Shaw said Friday she would allow him to complete the sentence as community service.
Witnesses testified that Ellis punched the bird - named "Johnny" - and slammed its head against the deck of his boat outside the Newport Harbor Elks Lodge, where the parrot was the mascot.
The judge also ruled that Ellis must pay $3,577.26 in restitution for surgery and care of the bird and cannot have pets or consume alcohol during three years of probation.
Ellis was convicted April 27 of felony animal cruelty and abuse of an animal.
Ellis testified that the bird, which he had owned for 11 years, was injured after it bit him on the arm and he fell down, and that witnesses outside the lodge misunderstood what they saw.
The parrot survived the March 2003 attack and was adopted by an animal care agency.