Weird News

[Carruthers]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

Why couldn't he wear his leathers?

Noxious emissions, perhaps?

[BigV]

because of all the burned skin, obviously.

[DanaC]

Might be something to do with metal bits.

[Gravdigr]

Jewelry goes in sometimes, so I wouldn't think the metal would cause problems.

Maybe it wasn't that they were his leathers, but, rather, his "colors"? As in, motorcycle club colors.

[sexobon]

I think that generally it's only light weight clothing and no shoes. Heavy leather would require an extended burn time to be thorough. Additionally, much leather is chromium tanned which may make for harmful emissions and harmful residue in the ashes.

[Carruthers]

Going back to Black Puddings (Post #3780 et seq), their uses are many and varied.

Black pudding saves butcher trapped in freezer

A butcher who became trapped in a walk-in freezer escaped thanks to a frozen black pudding.

Chris McCabe, 70, said he got trapped after the freezer door in his shop in Totnes, Devon, blew shut behind him.

Stranded in temperatures of -20C (-4F), with the door-release button frozen shut, he said he used the 1.5kg (3.3lbs) sausage as a battering ram on the release mechanism.

Mr McCabe said: "No-one could hear me banging. Black pudding saved my life."

'Pointed and weighty'

Upon realising his predicament, Mr McCabe initially thought he "was OK because I could kick the safety button from inside", but "this time it was frozen solid".

Stuck in temperatures capable of killing a human in about an hour, the father-of-four searched frantically for an improvised tool to batter the button.

With the beef too slippery and the lamb too big, he happened on the "best thing" - the black pudding, made by the Queen's butcher HM Sheridan of Ballater, Aberdeenshire, who Mr McCabe has been buying the pudding from for more than 20 years.

He said: "It was the right shape. I used it like the police use battering rams to break door locks in. It was solid, pointed and I could get plenty of weight behind it.

"I'm lucky really. We sell about two or three each week and that was the last one in there."

Link

[Gravdigr]

Good thinking.

[Happy Monkey]

Sounds like there's a quality control issue with that button. "Can't get frozen shut" seems like it should be pretty high on the list of requirements.

[DanaC]

Yeh man. Bit of a design flaw, that.

[Gravdigr]

Maintenance. Cleaning.

Ever seen a stock room? Cluttered, crowded. I've long thought walk-in cooler/freezer doors should open to the inside, like a tornado/bomb shelter.

[Carruthers]

An object is worth what someone is prepared to pay for it.
That said, I still think it's weird that anyone would pay £575,000 for a teapot with a broken handle and no lid.
Would those wishing to accuse me of philistinism please form an orderly queue.

Broken teapot bought for £15 ($21) sells for £575,000 ($803,000)

Your old, cracked second-hand crockery could be worth more than you think.

A broken teapot bought for £15 has sold at auction for £575,000, after it was discovered to be one of the first ever made in America.

A private collector from the south-west of England bought the teapot, which had a broken handle and was missing its lid, at a general auction in the Midlands in 2016.

It was thought to be Isleworth pottery, which was made in a factory in Middlesex between 1766 and 1800, but the buyer had doubts.

He took the piece to Clare Dunham, an expert at Woolley and Wallis auctioneers in Salisbury, who identified the vessel’s distinctive blue and white palm tree design as the work of Staffordshire potter John Bartlam.

Mr Bartlam left England in around 1763 to set up business in South Carolina. England’s export trade with America was booming and he believed he could save on transportation costs by producing pottery in the US.
He became the first known manufacturer of American porcelain.

Experts said it was the seventh recorded piece of Bartlam porcelain to come to market and the only known Bartlam teapot, making it the earliest American-manufactured teapot to have been discovered.

It was offered for sale with a starting price of £10,000 and was expected to reach as much as £50,000. But the hammer came down at £460,000 and with fees added on, the teapot was sold for £575,000.

A London dealer bidding on behalf of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, Rod Jellicoe, bought the teapot.

The Independent.

[glatt]

I see the Met bought it.

[Gravdigr]

That's the stupidest thing I've seen since I looked in the mirror.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Woolley and Wallis Auctioneers said the the teapot had “caught the imagination of many” and it was “absolutely delighted” about the sale.

I'm sure the $160,740.10 in fees added to their delight.

[Carruthers]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

I'm sure the $160,740.10 in fees added to their delight.

Money does tend to colour your judgement.

Unfortunately, I've never been put to that particular test.