Some real cold hard cash in Pittsburgh!

Would you invest your money in a bank that paid 5.5% interest on your checking/savings account? Brendan Spaar did some investigating and found that banks rarely pay out over 1% interest anymore. This “bank” in Pittsburgh was paying out 5.5%. This sweet deal came at a price, though. The 5.5% interest was paid out on gift cards that could only be redeemed for ice cream. That’s right, this bank was actually an ice cream shop. State regulators didn’t think this idea was all that cool and have threatened legal action against the owner if he doesn’t put the whole bank scheme on ice.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/pittsburgh-ice-cream-bank-draws-regulators-ire-101913737.html

 

River washes high school boy down sewer

Talk about a wild ride. This teen in Ohio fell off of his bike and into a flooded river. The current was moving so rapidly that it swept him into a sewer and then washed him 1,500 feet across the street. Luckily his friend got the attention of a city worker who called the fire department. They began investigating where this boy could have gone and heard him yelling for help. While the adventure was probably the thrill of a lifetime it’s not one that Brendan Spaar recommends sticking to the water park for those kinds of thrills.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ohio-teen-travels-quarter-mile-sewer-202312513.html

Traffic ticket weight loss program

A woman in South Carolina was charged with failing to wear her seatbelt after a sherrif deputy pulled her over two years ago.

At 408 pounds, Colantonio couldn’t get the belt across her frame and admitted that she had not buckled up for years. Trooper Amos said, “It happens a lot with South Carolina’s obesity rate.”

I know on airplanes they sell seat belt extensions.  Don’t they make the same thing for cars?  The woman says that she has since lost enough weight to safely buckle herself into her car.  I’m not sure why this made the news.  There are people that get arrested for even stupider things every day and they don’t make the news.  This woman is too fat to fasten her seat belt and is praised for her weight loss.  What about drunk drivers that go sober?  They aren’t given the same praise.

Researchers have found that extremely obese people are 60 percent less likely to buckle up, and are 56 percent more likely to die in a car crash.

Brendan Spaar is glad that this woman is now healthier and able to fasten her seat belt.  I just hope that I don’t have to sit next to her on a plane!

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/video/woman-credits-traffic-ticket-200lb-193000157.html

Fast Food Nation

Who says America isn’t a Fast Food Nation?  This one casino in Minnesota has set a Guiness World Record for the largest burger ever created.  This monster burger weighed in at over 1 ton!  Brendan Spaar grills burgers on the weekend but has never attempted to cook one over a pound.  Here’s the skinny on the patty:

Black Bear’s burger included 60 pounds of bacon, 50 pounds of lettuce, 50 pounds of sliced onions, 40 pounds of pickles and 40 pounds of cheese.
It took about four hours to cook the patty. A crane was used to flip it.

Source:  http://news.yahoo.com/minn-casino-cooks-record-1-ton-cheeseburger-233619810.html

Insane marriage proposal

You know what they say, the couple that pranks together, stays together.  OK, I’ve never heard that saying but I guess this Russian guy and his new bride will be the first to use it.  People have been trying to one up each other on the proposal scene for the longest time.  The latest gauntlet has been thrown down by a guy that faked his own death in his proposal.  I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, you’re making it way too hard on us single guys!  Women are going to expect grand elaborate reality show style proposals.  We need to draw a line somewhere and I think that faking your own death is a good place to draw said line.

A romantic (and possibly a bit insecure) Russian man faked his own death with an elaborate setup that involved stunt men, actors, make-up artists, and a bogus car crash all in order to see how his girlfriend would react to the (fabricated) news that he had died. It was a crazy ruse and could have gone wrong in about a million different ways. Fortunately, everything turned out for the best.

Brendan Spaar would never fake his own death.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/man-fakes-own-death-then-proposes-213212924.html

JK Rowling is building treehouses

If you live in a neighborhood with a Home Owner’s Association, you know how difficult it can be to make changes to your property.  The formality of going before an architecture board is supposed to keep the neighborhood nice and keep neighbors from doing wild and crazy things to their property.  Imagine if your neighbor was Harry Potter author JK Rowling.  She plans to build two giant tree houses on her property for children of all ages to use.  While boys and girls may enjoy crossing between the Hogwarts style houses, the adults in the neighborhood are none too pleased. 

Several neighbors had written to object, saying the tree-houses may be visible from the road through a gap in the conifers that shield the development and could affect the area’s landscape.

In the end, the board elected to let Rowling move forward with the treehouse construction, mainly because she’s JK Freakin Rowling and does whatever she wants.  Oh and did I mention that her house is a 17th-century mansion? 

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/jk-rowling-build-hogwarts-style-tree-houses-114600862.html

Brendan Spaar lives in a pinapple under the sea.

You can find a lot of good things on Freecycle

Have you ever used Freecycle?  Just go to http://www.freecycle.org and look in your area.  Brendan Spaar has been investigating free things since 2008 and has gotten a lot of good deals.  I have gotten futon covers and most recently I saw a FREE braves ticket to last night’s game where Lynard Skynard was playing!  Can you believe it?  The ticket was free!  They email you a lot so you may want to make a filter so it goes into its own box.  I am on the Alpharetta Freecycle but there is probably one in your area.  Check it out.

Clay Aiken tweets drunk

So Clay Aiken is in hot water right now for tweeting a lame joke during the Republican National Convention.  While I don’t think he had racist intentions, I don’t think it was appropriate to send something like that out to the masses.  It’s like when someone is talking obnoxiously loud at a restaurant: Yeah the conversation may be appropriate for your friends but not everyone needs to know what you are saying.  So many people lose sight of the fact that Twitter is a giant restaurant.  If you don’t want to face the wrath of the other patrons, protect your tweets (dine at home) like Brendan Spaar does.

Aiken posted the following comment on Tuesday evening while apparently taking in the Republican National Convention: “Playing drinking game with my brother now. We drink every time we see a black person on screen at the RNC convention. #soberasamormon.”

Source: http://music.yahoo.com/blogs/our-country/john-rich-takes-clay-aiken-task-racist-tweet-181416311.html

 

Chipotle was rounding change in some locations

Here’s another reason not to use cash.  Chipotle was rounding change to the nearest nickle (up and down!) just to save a few seconds in line.  Apparently it takes a long time to count pennies so they made this change in high volume locations.  I guess it’s easier for them to pay a credit card fee instead of counting pennies.  Makes you want to check your receipt to see if you were over charged.

Source http://finance.yahoo.com/news/penny-rounded-penny-lost-ask-161403860.html.

Brendan Spaar always checks his receipt.

Fiat pulls epic prank on VW

Check out the source link to see a Fiat parked in front of the Swedish headquarters for Volkswagen.  It appears that the Fiat folks knew that the Google Street view car was going to be traveling past the headquarters so they followed it.  I wonder if the street view car is a Fiat and that’s how they knew…  Regardless, this is an epic prank and apparently it will stay on there for at least a year until Google sends another car out.  Pretty epic if  you ask Brendan Spaar.

Source: http://www.tecca.com/news/2012/05/16/fiat-volkswagen-street-view-prank/