ben hooper
NOTD: Found Pearl Becomes Engagement Ring
A Rhode Island woman found a pearl in a clam she was served at a restaurant and it ended up becoming her engagement ring. Sandy Sikorski and Ken Steinkamp said they were dining at The Bridge Restaurant and Raw Bar in downtown Westerly, with Sikorski’s brother and his wife in December 2021, when Sikorski ate the last of the quahog clams.
“That’s when I tasted this big round thing in my mouth. I’m thinking, ‘What the heck is this?’ So, I take it and spit it down on the table, in my hand, and my sister-in-law says, ‘Is that a tooth?'”
Sikorski’s sister-in-law, a jewelry enthusiast, soon surmised [that] the object was a 9.8 millimeter pearl. Marc Fishbone of Black Orchid Jewelers examined the object and confirmed the suspicions.
“He said it is called a Mercenaria pearl, which is a mollusk type of little animal, which makes what looks like a little pearl. It’s made out of the same material, calcite, and another mineral […]. [It] takes years and years to grow,” Sikorski said. “He said the weight of this and the size of this, [it} probably [took] 50 years to make.”
Sikorski and Steinkamp agreed that, if they ever decided to get married, they would have the pearl made into an engagement ring. That plan came to pass when Steinkamp proposed July 8, using a ring Fishbone had fashioned with the pearl as its stone. The couple celebrated their engagement by returning to the restaurant […].
UPI Odd News
Pearl Found In Clam
Ben Hooper
July 27, 2023
A Westerly woman feels like the luckiest girl in the world for two reasons. For the past four years, Sandy Sikorski and Ken Steinkamp have been regulars at The Bridge Restaurant and Raw Bar in downtown Westerly. For years, the restaurant, which looks over the Pawcatuck River, has offered deals on seafood.
“We come here often to get the clams,” said Sikorski. “They’re bigger, they come on platters, upraised, they have great horseradish and everything I love about it…they taste delicious.”
There was one [clam] left.
“What are the odds of a pearl being inside of this shell?” said Sikorski.
The perfectly shaped oval had been hiding in the meat of the clam. Sikorski held on to the […] pearl and became curious about it. First, she brought it to The Compass Rose in Westerly. The owner there took a look and referred her to their jewelry maker, Marc Fishbone, of Black Orchid Jewelers.
“Wow, you got a beauty there. It’s heavy,” stated Fishbone. “It’s probably one in a million, one in a million to have it perfect […]. [U]sually, there’s pieces of them missing and it looks like a tooth or something […]. [I]t is never like a whole, perfect little oval. Plus, it’s big.”
According to several online articles, the odds of finding one in a clam are about one in 100,000.
They wanted Fishbone to make the setting.
“[I] want it to be the most beautiful setting you’ve ever made and I like gold,” said Sikorski. “I didn’t want a hole in the bottom of the stone, I just wanted it secured.”
Steinkamp, who asked Sikorski’s dad for approval first, got down on one knee and popped the question with the beautiful ring in hand.
“[W]e’re not getting any younger and we felt, in a way, that this was kind of a signal or an odd bit of synchronicity,” said Sikorski. “It’s beautiful. It has diamonds, and a sparkle, and I know minerals are becoming more fashionable gemstones vs. a big diamond thing.”
She hopes to eventually pass the ring off to her 8-year-old granddaughter, Nora.
Westerly Woman Finds Rare Pearl
Sam Read
NBC 10 News
July 25, 2023
News of the Day
NOTD: Aggressive Moo
Image Credit: Clip Ground
A runaway bull, that was spotted running down Main Street in Kutztown (Pennsylvania), prompted the Kutztown University Police Department to issue an aggressive cow alert after the animal made its way onto campus, Sunday night. The bovine appeared scared because it was unfamiliar with its surroundings, police said in the alert that went out via its emergency notification system, about 7:15p. It advised recipients to avoid the North Campus and to not approach the bull, if encountered.
About 30 minutes later, campus police sent an update saying the animal’s owner, from the Fleetwood area, was on his way to retrieve the runaway. A third update, sent about 8:45p, indicated the threat to the campus community had ended but, the bull was, reportedly, still on the loose, last seen in Fleetwood. A video taken by Aaron Merkel and, shared to YouTube, showed the bovine as it trotted down Main Street in Kutztown, trailed by a police car. It could not be verified Monday morning with Fleetwood Police whether there were any livestock sightings in the borough and whether the bull was back in its owner’s possession.
A Berks County 911 Supervisor said there were no calls Monday morning for wandering livestock.
Reading Eagle
Steven Henshaw
June 26, 2023
The bovine’s owner was contacted but, the cow left the scene before it could be captured. University spokesman Matt Santos said the cow made a second visit to campus on Tuesday night. He said police caught up with the animal near Lytle Hall but, it fled into the nearby woods before it could be wrangled.
UPI
Ben Hooper
June 28, 2023
I don’t think they have found Mr. Moo, yet. ~Vic
Aggressive Cow Spotted Again (WFMZ/69 News/Berks Regional/Tom Rader/06-28-2023)
News of the Day
NOTD: Biting Drink Cans
A Czech Republic man showed off his powerful jaws by biting 36 drink cans in half in one minute, earning a Guinness World Record.
René Richter, appearing on Italy’s Lo Show Dei Record, took on the Guinness World Record for most drink cans ripped in half with the teeth in one minute.
The aluminum cans were filled with water for the attempt and Richter was allowed to use only one hand, and his teeth, for each can. [He] chomped through 36 cans in the allotted time, successfully setting the record.
Ben Hooper
UPI Odd News
January 11, 2023
This guy makes my teeth hurt. ~Vic
News of the Day
Scoop Saturday: Iowa Man Receives 33 Year Old Postcard
An Iowa man, who received a postcard from his sister, said he was surprised to note the card had been mailed in 1987. Paul Willis, a hog farmer in Thornton, said a postcard appeared in his mailbox, recently, from his sister, Annie Lovell […]. [H]e soon noticed the card bore a picture of Lovell on a Grand Canyon hike in 1987 and a San Francisco postmark from December of that same year.
Willis said the postcard bore a second postmark from April 29 of this year in Des Moines so, he called the post office to see if they had any explanation for the postcard’s tardiness. [An] employee said the postcard may have been discovered while furniture and machines were being moved for cleaning. “She said, ‘Well, the post offices are all going through deep cleaning because of COVID-19…'” Willis [recounted to] the Santa Rosa Press-Democrat.
An Illinois woman experienced a similar incident in July 2019, when a postcard showed up at her home that had been mailed 26 years earlier. Kim Draper said the card was addressed to the previous residents of her Springfield home and, [it] recounted the residents’ father’s travels in Hong Kong.
Ben Hooper
United Press International
May 7, 2020
No Video Clip
Short Piece on Kim Draper
Cosmic-Observation 