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The most expensive payphone call EVER

scaredpoet

Apparently, anyone dialing the US phone number (248) 771-0023 will be in for some serious sticker shock on the price of payphone calls these days.

The number appears to be some sort of a test line, or just a really messed up bug in some company’s phone network. No, it won’t give you free long distance calls or allow you to phreak the network or anything. But it is good for a laugh, and near as I can tell, it registers as a network error message and so the call doesn’t actually cost you anything… but we’ll see whether that’s really true when my next phone bill shows up.

For the dial-skittish, you can listen to the call here.

I really do think that the extra seven cents at the end is a nice touch. 🙂

EDIT (December 8, 2005): Aww crap. The number is now disconnected, and no longer plays the recording. Sadly, the website hosting the sound file also appears to be equally “disconnected.” Damn the impermancy of the web, and damn the phone company, too!

My take on all this McGreevey business

scaredpoet

Okay, so yesterday the Governor of New Jersey resigned. It was a HUGE bombshell, because, well, either I was hiding under a rock and knew NOTHING about this while everyone else knew, or NO one knew about these rumors that McGreevey might be gay. But now, there it is, in explosive black and white. And the speech he gave is going to be one that is, well, if anything, memorable.

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Yes, couches have time limits

scaredpoet

So, somewhere in Florida a 480 pound woman sat on her couch for a total of, believe it or not, six years. And what happens when someone does that sort of thing? Evidently, the couch pretty much attaches to your ass. And yes, boys and girls, such a condition is apparently very lethal:

STUART, Fla. — A 480-pound Martin County woman has died after emergency workers tried to remove her from the couch where she had remained for about six years.

Gayle Laverne Grinds, 40, died Wednesday, after a failed six-hour effort to dislodge her from the couch in her home. Workers say the home was filthy, and Grinds was too large to get up from the couch to even use the bathroom.

No, the conditions inside the home of a human being in such a state are not going to be pretty.

So, you think maybe she was someone who had no family or friends, and so ended up falling through the cracks, so to speak? Oh no! She was living with someone…

Investigators say Grinds lived with a man named Herman Thomas, who says he tried to take care of her the best he could. He has told them he tried repeatedly to get her up, but simply couldn’t.

And so he let it go FOR SIX YEARS?! I don’t know about you, but I’d say after, oh, the third month at least, I’d start to worry and start calling for help, don’t ya think?

There are photos. No, I’m not posting them here. The description alone is quite gross enough.

Special thanks (dubious as such an honor may be) to onezumi for providing the link. Using my mad google skillz[tm], I was able to find a more comprehensive news story, not that such gruel would interest any of you.

What a horrible way to go.

Philippines… wedding… tripping… groping… cannibalism?

scaredpoet

So apparently, the old trip-and-grope maneuver, accidental or not, is quite a scanadalous offense in the Philippines. So much so that you can be eaten for it:

At the July 17 wedding of his daughter, Eladio Baule got angry with his cousin Benjie Ganay who tripped and accidentally touched the bride’s bottom, said Senior Police Inspector Perla Bacuel, at Narra town in Palawan province, southwest of Manila.

A few hours later, Baule, his son Gerald, another cousin Junnie Buyot and a nephew, Sabtuari Pique, allegedly confronted Ganay, then drove him to a secluded place where they stabbed him to death, Bacuel said.

Buyot, who surrendered to police and is acting as a witness, told police they then roasted Ganay’s body using coconut leaves and kerosene, Bacuel said.

They then served the guy up to unwitting guests at the wedding reception. Yummy. Though if I had been there, I think I would’ve known something was up, considering I’m allergic to coconut and all.

Also in the Philippines, don’t kiss the President. Or the bodyguards might eat you, too.

no

“No Cannibalism! And, stop kissing me!”