BS: Things people keep........

Subject: BS: Things people keep........
From: Shanghaiceltic
Date: 24 Nov 04 - 07:13 PM

I have a bottle of Baijiu with scorpion in it, would it be illegal in NZ? It is for personal consumpition when I am desparate.



Bottled snakes and pickled kittens

25.11.2004


A woman upset when police seized her three preserved snakes stormed into the Hamilton station and threw a jar of pickled kittens at the counter.

Susan Hoskyn, 39, said she could barely contain herself as she made her way to the police station about 1pm on Sunday.

"I walked in the door and said, 'You've taken my snakes - here, have my pussy as well', and slammed the jar on to the counter."

Hoskyn said the snakes, which she bought from an antique store, held special spiritual significance for her because she was born in the year of the snake and used them to help to celebrate Halloween.

She also kept the two kittens for Halloween celebrations, using them to give the house a scary look.

The kittens were still-born from the couple's cat.

Police communications manager Kris McGehan said that although the encounter sounded amusing, it had serious consequences.

"The jar shattered. It was full of formaldehyde, which is highly toxic. The public counter had to be closed, which caused police and the public a lot of inconvenience.

"Two phones had to be replaced and we had to monitor the health of staff who may have absorbed the chemical or its fumes."

Hoskyn, unemployed, was arrested and appeared in court in front of a community magistrate on Monday charged with behaving in an offensive manner.

She did not enter a plea.

Hoskyn said her trouble began on Sunday when she had an argument with her partner, Tony.

"I slipped over and cut my head, Tony panicked and called an ambulance, thinking he had caused my injury. He hadn't.

"Police were called, we think by the ambulance people. While outside they saw two cannabis plants and decided under the Misuse of Drugs Amendment Act they could search the house.

"I was taken away by ambulance and Tony was arrested. When they searched the house they came across my two snakes, preserved in jars."

The snakes were taken away by the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries.

"When I got back from the hospital and saw they had taken them, I saw red. I bolted down to the police station to demand them back."

A spokeswoman for the ministry said the snakes had been taken away by quarantine staff at the request of the police.

"We estimate they are at least 60 years old. We're still assessing what to do with them."

Hoskyn said the snakes were harmless and wants police to return them.

- NZPA

Subject: RE: BS: Things people keep........
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 24 Nov 04 - 07:18 PM

And I thought keeping my wisdom teeth in a box in the drawer was weird.....

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Things people keep........
From: Scoville
Date: 24 Nov 04 - 07:23 PM

I've got my childhood cat's charred bones. My father cremated her in the barbecue because we couldn't afford a real cremation--we had lost a dog fairly recently and he was too big to cremate at home--and were afraid our new dog would dig her up. We never could settle on a comfortable place to scatter them so we have them in a folded-paper coffin in the den.

Subject: RE: BS: Things people keep........
From: Rt Revd Sir jOhn from Hull
Date: 24 Nov 04 - 08:28 PM

theres certainly some weird folk about!

Subject: RE: BS: Things people keep........
From: LilyFestre
Date: 24 Nov 04 - 08:41 PM

I have our oldest Lab's baby teeth in a little box in my nightstand. I thought I had ruined Homer's life because a few came out one day while I was playing tug of war with him...I had NO idea that dogs lost their baby teeth like people do! I cried while I told my husband who promptly sat back and laughed his ass off!   :P

Michelle

Subject: RE: BS: Things people keep........
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 24 Nov 04 - 08:44 PM

Virginity.

I have a friend who lost hers, but she claims that she still has the box it came in.

Subject: RE: BS: Things people keep........
From: MBSLynne
Date: 25 Nov 04 - 02:50 AM

I didn't lose mine...I gave it away as soon as I could! NOT something you want to have cluttering up the place!

LOve Lynne

Subject: RE: BS: Things people keep........
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 25 Nov 04 - 04:30 AM

Mine got stolen.

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Things people keep........
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 25 Nov 04 - 04:34 AM

It wasn't me!!!

Subject: RE: BS: Things people keep........
From: GUEST,sex machine
Date: 25 Nov 04 - 08:03 AM

or me    sad to relate

Subject: RE: BS: Things people keep........
From: Cluin
Date: 25 Nov 04 - 10:58 AM

Sir jOhn is correct.

Subject: RE: BS: Things people keep........
From: Davetnova
Date: 25 Nov 04 - 11:23 AM

I still have a couple of old beards in a drawer somewhere and two ponytails, one died bright orange.Apparently I used to be young and hairy. Iwish I still had the top bit of my hair but I think it took frght when it saw the ponytail going into the drawer and escaped into the night while I wasn't looking.

Subject: RE: BS: Things people keep........
From: GUEST,Mingulay
Date: 25 Nov 04 - 11:28 AM

Sir jOhn is correct. But then it takes one to know one. I should know, I've been one all my life. I tend to keep screws, nuts, washers, odd bits of wood, rusty old tools and other such junk. Have a shed full of it. Occasionally get that glow of satisfaction when a scavenged part is put to new use.

Subject: RE: BS: Things people keep........
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 25 Nov 04 - 05:22 PM

My dad was like that... when he died and I sorted out his shed, I found 27 assorted screwdrivers, only 15 of which were a) complete and b) useable.

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Things people keep........
From: GUEST
Date: 25 Nov 04 - 08:43 PM

There are few things we should keenly desire if we really knew what we wanted" - La Rochefoucauld

Subject: RE: BS: Things people keep........
From: Billy the Bus
Date: 25 Nov 04 - 10:16 PM

Shanghaiceltic - bottles Tequila with worms are allowed into NZ, so iour bottle of Baijiu with scorpion should be OK. Declare it, and if Customs etc quibble, get desperate, and drink it...

Cheers - Sam (NZ)

Subject: RE: BS: Things people keep........
From: Neighmond
Date: 26 Nov 04 - 12:22 AM

I used to rent from a man in Emmetsburg who rented out the front half of his shop to an antique dealer, and she got a big estate to clear out. Inside of a huge chest was a paper wrapped parcel, with a not pinned to it:

The drawers poppa left this world in


We didn't open the package, but rather threw it out.

Chaz

Subject: RE: BS: Things people keep........
From: Peace
Date: 26 Nov 04 - 02:57 AM

When my grandfather died, his 'special' drawer was tended to by my aunt. He had 53 or 57 packs of playing cards--can't remember which, many shaved or marked. There were also some cards marked in Braille so he could play with a blind friend of his every other Friday. As I recall, they broke even over the years playing cribbage. (I mention that because I only ever saw my grandfather cheat once when he was winning some people's money back from a sharp.)

Subject: RE: BS: Things people keep........
From: Metchosin
Date: 26 Nov 04 - 04:16 AM

I was cleaning stuff out from my eldest daughter's old room, after she had moved from home and found a little ring box with something wrapped in kleenex. It was broken pieces of her wisdom teeth from a dental extraction and when I phoned her regarding the "find" she asked me not to throw them out.....

Subject: RE: BS: Things people keep........
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 26 Nov 04 - 07:41 AM

Neighmond....poppa was cremated and his ashes were put into a miniature chest of drawers which was worth in the region of
$27,000. It was wrapped in silk material and then paper to protect it.
Best wishes.

Subject: RE: BS: Things people keep........
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 26 Nov 04 - 08:06 AM

my weakness is for bits of paper with bits of information on them that I might need. I store them on the floor.

You know the Francis Bacon painting with the manThing) with a paper trail coming from his entrails. that is me.

Subject: RE: BS: Things people keep........
From: Gervase
Date: 26 Nov 04 - 09:40 AM

I kept my chickenpox scab for weeks until my parents found it and threw it out. Rotten swine! My stepson has a box of oddities, including a mummified mouse, my big toenail, a couple of dead bees and a beetle. But that's quite normal for a 10-year-old, I suppose.
Still, that's nothing on the Catholic Church. There must be enough chunks of Jesus' foreskin lying in chapels across Italy to fill a box of pork scratchings.

Subject: RE: BS: Things people keep........
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 26 Nov 04 - 09:41 AM

The reason for not throwing out the apparently 'unusable' screwdrivers was the high quality tool steel they were made of. Many useful tools can be made from old screwdriver pieces, but it helps if you have a forge handy...

Subject: RE: BS: Things people keep........
From: Little Hawk
Date: 26 Nov 04 - 09:51 AM

The original story has me shaking my head and saying, "Only in England!" Brits are the world's record holders when it comes to eccentricity.

It sounds like something that would have happened to Olive Whatnoll. I wonder if Susan Hoskyn is a relative of the Whatnoll's?

Subject: RE: BS: Things people keep........
From: JennyO
Date: 26 Nov 04 - 10:03 AM

When I had a gall bladder operation in 1987, I kept the gallstones for about 10 years or so. There were 5 of them, and they were sort of square, like dice. I used to joke about painting dots on them and using them to play yahtzee, but I was never game to do it. I think I threw them out eventually. Can't find them now.

Subject: RE: BS: Things people keep........
From: Shanghaiceltic
Date: 26 Nov 04 - 08:33 PM

The original story was from the New Zealnd Herlad Little Hawk. Harumpppphhhh, people calling us nice UK folk weird indeed?

Subject: RE: BS: Things people keep........
From: freda underhill
Date: 26 Nov 04 - 08:44 PM

My father had an old portuguese wine flask, a big bottle with a handle and a wicker cover. some people had given it to him in Darwin, after a particulatrly difficult incident. for sentimental reasons he always kept it, before he died he asked my sister to keep it, she didnt want it, i have it.

Subject: RE: BS: Things people keep........
From: SINSULL
Date: 26 Nov 04 - 09:10 PM

I have a collection of parts from my beloved kitties - a tooth, a bit of hair, a nail - all stored in a box with my son's teeth. Weird I guess but I can't bring myself to throw it all away.

Subject: RE: BS: Things people keep........
From: PoppaGator
Date: 26 Nov 04 - 10:06 PM

My mother-in-law, who passed away about 15 years ago, was a sweet person who had very bad health habits during her final years, virtually living on Coca-Cola and cigarettes.

My wife still has her mother's last unopened 6-ounce Coke, in the vintage hourglass-style green bottle, occupying a place of honor in our refrigerator. (The bottle, in fact, is on its second or maybe even third refrigerator by now.)

Subject: RE: BS: Things people keep........
From: Little Robyn
Date: 27 Nov 04 - 06:08 AM

I still have about half of my baby teeth. I set them in pink plasticine almost 50 years ago. I also have a few teeth from my little dog - who died 20 years back, aged 17!
I kept the end of my nephew's umbilical chord, intending to give it back to him when he turned 21 but somehow it didn't seem appropriate when the time came.
Oh, and when my large lop-eared rabbit died, I had him stuffed!
Not all New Zealanders are weird but some are!
Robyn

Subject: RE: BS: Things people keep........
From: Deckman
Date: 27 Nov 04 - 07:59 AM

Great thread idea!

We have a weird friend ... several actually ... who has kept several of her body parts. Tonsills, teeth, and a couple of things she won't talk about.

When I was heading for my hip replacement surgery a year ago, she begged me to save her my old hip bones. I dutifly made this request of the doctor and he turned me down. He mumbled somthing about new state laws, mumbled more about wierd patients, and I let the request drop.

Several weeks after my surgery Bride Judy and I bought a large ham. As I boned it out, I realized that the "ham bone" was a full hip and ball joint, just like I'd had replaced. And, because it was large, and I am not, it looked very similiar to mine. (I knew this because I asked the doctor to wake me on the table and show me my old bone).

I boiled all the meat off the ham bone, put it in a fancy box, and presented it to our friend, not excatly telling her that it was MY bone, but also not excatly telling her it wasn't!

I thought she was going to go into rapture, right then and there. She carried it and waved it around the room, showed it to everyone, until I could no longer keep a straight face. Judy didn't help either.

I finally confessed the truth. We're still friends, but it took some work on my part! Cheers, Bob

Subject: RE: BS: Things people keep........
From: SINSULL
Date: 27 Nov 04 - 10:43 AM

Bob,
That is just plain weird. You are evil and she is crazy. How wonderful that you found each other.
SINS, who used to wear a boiled hambone on a necklace.

Subject: RE: BS: Things people keep........
From: Deckman
Date: 27 Nov 04 - 10:49 AM

Sins ... I appreciate the compliment ... I work hard at it! Bob

Subject: RE: BS: Things people keep........
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 27 Nov 04 - 07:30 PM

That Coke Bottle is probably worth a fortune on Ebay now...

Keeping one's own umbilical cord blood may turn out to be a great investment in one's health in the future.... :-)

Subject: RE: BS: Things people keep........
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 28 Nov 04 - 01:15 AM

I have my children's baby teeth, collected in the name of the Tooth Fairy and popped into a film canister for each kid. One time I found a note with the tooth: my daughter, aged five, asked "if I can have my teeth back one of these days." I kept the note also. One of these days she can have them back!

I have a frozen piece of smoked Puget Sound salmon in my freezer that my Dad sent just before he died seven years ago. I did this along the same lines as my ex, who years earlier had dried and shellacked a bagel after one of our trips east, saying he always wanted to have a good New York bagel in the house. So it is with my salmon. By now the fish is probably freeze-dried.

I have some priceless (to me) kid art. I suppose that is no surprise. They create some interesting stuff as they grow, and it is nice to have representative pieces. There have been some great notes over the years also.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Things people keep........
From: Midchuck
Date: 28 Nov 04 - 08:17 AM

If I ever need a hip replacement, I'm going to demand the old bone to take home and dry out, and have some guitar nuts and saddles made out of it.

Then I'll sit around playing the guitar with them in it and singing the old Gene Autry theme... "I'm back in the saddle again..."

Peter.

Subject: RE: BS: Things people keep........
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 28 Nov 04 - 09:32 AM

My staple.

Back in 1969 I was explaining to a few friends how, if they continued to read Playboy magazine, they would get the idea that all women folded in two places and had a staple through their navel. One inquired about my staple and I replied that I had lost it when I was very young. Another said he'd won it in a poker game and, a few weeks later, presented me with a large staple mounted on a mahogany plaque. Oh, the staple was dated on top -- 1969. It still hangs on the wall in the bathroom. (Close to the bronze plaque that states "This room the gift of John Robert Silver.")

Linn

Subject: RE: BS: Things people keep........
From: Rapparee
Date: 28 Nov 04 - 06:51 PM

I used to know a guy who had his foreskin. I have no idea about that. None. And I don't want to know.

Subject: RE: BS: Things people keep........
From: *Laura*
Date: 28 Nov 04 - 07:02 PM

I collect things - but sensible things. like minis. mini minis.

I get that from my dad - he was a hoarder. he had masses of collections - telephone cards, tea cards, old coins, stamps, all our home-made cards from when me and my brother were little, cheese labels, old model cars, beanie babies, whiskey bottles (with the added advantage of having to drink the whiskey first), rugby programmes, cricket books - even 20p coins! (in one of those huge whiskey bottles!)
we counted the 20p coins once - there was over £70 in there!!!

But then again these are quite normal things to collect...

Subject: RE: BS: Things people keep........
From: pdq
Date: 28 Nov 04 - 07:03 PM

Midchuck - sounds like a 'lame' effort to make Gene Autry 'hip'.

Subject: RE: BS: Things people keep........
From: Metchosin
Date: 28 Nov 04 - 07:52 PM

Back in the days of too much psychedelic drugs, an acquaintance of my husband had a large collection of RCMP memorabilia on his mantlepiece, along with a collection of jars, each containing a sample of his feces along with a meticulous list of what he had eaten for the day to produce his collection. He had 30 little jars for the month.

He was subsequently visitd by a couple of RCMP officers for a chat, whose eyes drifted to the mantlepiece, whereupon they found themselves with nothing left to say and left.

That's about as weird as you get im my mind, unless you're Jeffery Dalmer.

Subject: RE: BS: Things people keep........
From: Peace
Date: 28 Nov 04 - 10:14 PM

"I used to know a guy who had his foreskin. I have no idea about that. None. And I don't want to know."

Rub it and it turns into a suitcase.

Subject: RE: BS: Things people keep........
From: Deckman
Date: 28 Nov 04 - 10:24 PM

Metchosin ... you just reminded me that my brother used to collect some of his better farts in mason jars. Then after supper and before dessert, he would pass a bottle around the table and ask the guests to smell it and try to guess what the menu was that produced the aroma.

Needless to say, he had to leave home when he was 13 ... for his own safety.

I'm pleased that people who know us both state that I did NOT take after my brother! Bob