Maybe it’s how Rembrandt started. In 2005, News of the Weird reported bustling sales for artist Erin Crowe’s series of oil paintings of Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, who at the time was riding high. Greenspan-worshipping money managers quickly bought up Crowe’s inventory for thousands of dollars each. A Wall Street Journal reporter tracked down Crowe and some of her customers this February and found subdued demand. Shockingly, some have hidden or discarded their Greenspans. One of Crowe’s Greenspan customers asked her to paint a Ben Bernanke for him, but for about half the fee that he had earlier paid for a Greenspan. No word if Madoff has any.
Robbers dig into Paris bank vault. A gang of robbers dug their way into the vault of a Parisian bank and emptied almost 200 private safes. They entered the Credit Lyonnais branch near the opera house after using building equipment to burn holes and shatter walls. Having tied up a security guard, the gang spent the next nine hours robbing the bank before setting it on fire as they left.
The value of the stolen goods is still being estimated. One investigator described the heist at the Avenue de l’Opera branch as a “professional job.”
You’re kidding! Really think so?
The heist has been compared to the Spaggiari Affair, dubbed “the heist of the century,” masterminded by Albert Spaggiari in Nice more than 30 years ago. Spaggiari and his gang spent two days and three nights digging into the vault of a Societe Generale branch, stealing 50 million francs.
Patience apparently really does have its own rewards.
India guru quits after sex claims. And he doesn’t even play golf or run a custom motorcycle shop. A Hindu holy man in India has quit as head of a religious organization after police launched a probe into allegations of obscenity against him after a video emerged apparently showing him canoodling with two women.
The guru said he has decided to live a “life of spiritual seclusion for an indefinite time.”
He is not the first with dirty fingerprints to make that abrupt transition.
Murmansk: Men spending too much time in the garage! A city and seaport in the extreme northwest part of Russia, Murmansk sits on the Kola Bay, seven miles from the Barents Sea on the northern shore of the Kola Peninsula, near Russia’s borders with Norway and Finland.
Murmansk was the last town founded in the Russian Empire (1916) and is named after the royal Russian dynasty of Romanovs. The only ice-free port in the Russian Arctic, the city was built as a terminus for the railway and designed to open the North Atlantic supply route to Russia in support of the Eastern Front during World War I. It remains an important fishing and shipping port; it is also aligned as a city sister to Jacksonville, Florida.
Despite its rapidly declining population, Murmansk remains the largest city north of the Arctic Circle. Its current population (311,209) has dropped more than 150,000 in the past two decades.
But trouble brews in paradise. Many Murmansk women are angry with their husbands for spending too much time in the garage.
Says one, “It is a tradition that the men build the garages themselves. Many of them were illegally built, though a few months ago there was an amnesty for unregistered garages.
“Winters here are long and hard and they’ve got to keep their cars somewhere. They like to mend their cars in a warm place, and the fishermen can lock up their cars when they spend months at sea.”
But women think enough is enough.
“The men spend a lot of time there, repairing their cars and talking politics or gossiping.
“They call them (their garages) sea shells. I don’t know why because they are so ugly and sea shells are so pretty.”
None of the huts are furnished at IKEA. But many have lumpy, well-worn sofas.
“The garages are often furnished with old furniture, so after bad rows with their wives the men can come here to stay for a few days.”
The garages often become party central, much to women’s chagrin.
“When a car has been repaired they celebrate. It is a tradition to eat homemade pickles and drink vodka, so in most garages there is a good store of supplies.”
The men of Russia’s Arctic city of Murmansk protect this unlikely passion, as another woman explains.
“Many men in Murmansk love escaping to their garages, which are often built far away from the apartment blocks where they live.”
The men apparently seek refuge year ‘round.
“Many of the garages have wood burners, some even have saunas. From time to time there is a fire, and when that happens it can spread fast since there is so much paint and chemicals stored here.”
But curious wives remain stymied by what’s really going on.
“It is strange that behind all these doors, inside all these garages without windows, there is so much going on, like it’s a secret society.”
Men, a secret society? No chance! On their own, men live like bears with furniture. Murmansk simply proves it. How about some respect? After all, it takes a lot of time, effort, and teamwork to keep an engine running smoothly. Especially above the Arctic Circle.