BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — The management of a restaurant has apologized after a diner found a piece of a human finger on his hamburger soon after a worker accidentally cut himself.

A kitchen manager injured himself and no one immediately realized he had lost part of his finger while others rushed to help him, said Amy Freshwater, a spokeswoman for TGI Friday’s.

“The manager didn’t even know it happened until he got to the hospital,” she said.

A wait staff member, unaware that the worker had lost a piece of his finger, served the plate to a dinner who immediately spotted the piece of flesh Tuesday night.

The manager at the restaurant at College Mall was treated at Bloomington Hospital and lost only a small piece of his finger, according to Freshwater.

“We absolutely acknowledge the seriousness of this incident, and we are very, very sorry that this occurred,” she said.

She also said the restaurant had been in contact with the diner several times and that she did not expect him to pursue any type of legal action.

The diner called police after finding the fingertip. An officer told the customer that it was not a criminal matter, Detective Sgt. David Drake said.

[via IndyStar]

Hungary workers get shock at bottom of rum barrel

BUDAPEST (Reuters) - Hungarian builders who drank their way to the bottom of a huge barrel of rum while renovating a house got a nasty surprise when a pickled corpse tumbled out of the empty barrel, a police magazine website reported.

According to online magazine www.zsaru.hu, workers in Szeged in the south of Hungary tried to move the barrel after they had drained it, only to find it was surprisingly heavy and were shocked when the body of a naked man fell out.

The website said that the body of the man had been shipped back from Jamaica 20 years ago by his wife in the barrel of rum in order to avoid the cost and paperwork of an official return.

According to the website, workers said the rum in the 300-liter barrel had a “special taste” so they even decanted a few bottles of the liquor to take home.

The wife has since died and the man was buried in a proper grave.

Source: Reuters

BEIJING - Chinese weather specialists used chemicals to engineer Beijing’s heaviest rainfall of the year, helping to relieve drought and rinse dust from China’s capital, the official Xinhua News Agency reported Friday.

Technicians with the Beijing Weather Modification Office fired seven rocket shells containing 163 cigarette-size sticks of silver iodide over the city’s skies on Thursday, Xinhua said.

The reaction that occurred brought as much as four-tenths of an inch of rain, the heaviest rainfall this year, helping to “alleviate drought, add soil moisture and remove dust from the air for better air quality,” Xinhua said.

Though unusual in many parts of the world, China has been tinkering with artificial rainmaking for decades, using it frequently in the drought-plagued north. Last month, another artificial rainfall was generated to clear Beijing after the city suffered some of the fiercest dust storms this decade.

[Source: AP]

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Illusionist David Copperfield magically escaped getting robbed.

After his show at a West Palm Beach performing arts center Sunday, Copperfield was walking with two female assistants back to their tour bus when four teenagers pulled up in a black car, the police report said.

Two armed robbers allegedly got out of the car demanding the group’s belongings. An assistant handed over $400 from her pockets while the other gave up her purse with 200 euros, $100, her passport, plane tickets and a cellphone. Copperfield refused to empty his pockets, the report said.

Copperfield said he turned his pockets inside out to reveal nothing in them, even though he was carrying his passport, wallet and cell phone.

“Call it reverse pic-pocketing,” Copperfield told The Palm Beach Post for its Wednesday editions.

When the alleged robbers left in the car Copperfield read the license plate number to an assistant while she called 911.

Four teenagers were arrested shortly after and the assistants’ property recovered. They were charged with armed robbery and are being held without bond.

[Source: AP]

DES MOINES, Iowa — Wendy Dershem may think twice before leaving that egg roll on her plate at her next Chinese buffet.

The Des Moines woman, her boyfriend and her two children were kicked out of a restaurant last week after management accused her of leaving too much food on her plate.

“They told us we are not welcome there anymore,” said Dershem, a repeat customer at the Dragon House buffet. “We waste too much food. But the buffet is all you can eat. And you know kids. They won’t always eat everything and they want something else.”

Dershem said she paid her $5.95 fee but was abruptly told to leave after eating one plate of food.

“They just take one bite and throw it away,” said cashier Lin Huyen. “They take four egg rolls and crab rangoon, take one bite of egg roll and throw the whole plate. That is wasting food.”

Dershem said she was shocked by the scolding and complained to management.

Dragon House manager Kent Cao said his restaurant offers all you can eat buffet, not all you can waste. Dershem’s family took food, didn’t finish it and then piled on the same food again, he said.

“Shes done that too many times,” Cao said.

“We would welcome her back if she has respect and knows what she wants.”

[Source: AP]

MISHAWAKA, Ind. - Northern Indiana police are investigating a woman’s claim that a razor blade in a fish sandwich she ate cut the inside of her throat.

Lisa Griffin, 35, claims she bought the sandwich Monday at Rally’s Hamburgers, brought it home, took three bites, threw up blood and found a double-edged razor in her vomit. She was in good condition Thursday at St. Joseph Medical Center in South Bend, spokesman Mike Stack said.

Police said the throat injuries appeared to be consistent with razor cuts.

Craig Banser, who operates several Rally’s in the South Bend area, said the restaurant in Mishawaka set aside food products used at the time so police could check them and called suppliers.

“We haven’t heard anything since,” he said. “We’re just waiting to hear from police to see what they’ve found out.”

[Source: AP]

The Internet has always been a hotbed of wacky but harmless ideas. That’s not the case with the anti-tax movement: These money-saving schemes can cost you everything.

Each April, we remember Benjamin Franklin’s theory on the inevitability of death and taxes. But for those who believe that they can avoid paying income tax through clever loopholes, Franklin’s quote becomes just another government conspiracy.

Paul and Myrna Schuck once tried to convince an Alberta court that the postage stamps they had stuck to their clothes made them equivalent to royalty, and therefore not subject to taxation. Kent Hovind, an evangelist in a Creationist ministry, tried to avoid paying taxes by revoking his American citizenship, claiming to be “a natural sojourner” whose income belonged to God. In August, Royal LaMarr Hardy of Honolulu was sentenced to 13 years in jail for tax fraud and conspiracy. Since 1985, his so-called tax research foundation had convinced thousands of gullible people that filing taxes is
a voluntary decision.

Source

GARY, Ind. - A male student who has worn women’s clothes to school all year was turned away from his high school prom because he was wearing a dress.

Kevin Logan, 18, went to the West Side High School prom on Friday in a slinky fuchsia gown and heels. He believes officials discriminated against him by not allowing him inside.

“I have no formal pictures, no memories, nothing. You only have one prom,” he said.

Logan, who is gay, received an $85 refund for his prom ticket Tuesday but was not satisfied.

Sylvester Rowan, assistant to Gary Schools Superintendent Mary Steele, said school policy bans males from wearing dresses. Excluding Logan from prom was based on “the dress code, not the student’s homosexuality. That’s his personal preference.”

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