CAT | Say It Aint So
(In honor of Super Bowl XLIV (44) being played tomorrow here is a re post of 10/17/09. This is a strange Super Bowl story that occurred just over a year ago. I will follow today’s Super Bowl with new material.)
TUCSON, Arizona-
This is one of those things that is hard to believe could ever happen. But it did and was nothing less than shocking!
On February 1st, 2009, Super Bowl XLIII (aka-Super Bowl 43) was being played between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Arizona Cardinals. It was a good game throughout the first half and the second half only got better. Pittsburgh had led throughout, but with 2:37 remaining in the game, Cardinals’ fans erupted in delight as they watched their star receiver, Larry Fitzgerald, catch a pass across the middle from Kurt Warner, split four Steelers’ defenders and take it 64 yards into the end zone. It was the Cardinals’ first lead of the game, giving them and their fans high hopes that they could pull off the huge upset and win their first Super Bowl title in franchise history. As Fitzgerald celebrated with teammates and looked up at the JumboTron to watch himself sprint into the end zone on replay, Cardinals’ fans watching the game on their televisions in the Tucson, Arizona market got a lot more for their money than they had expected when waking up that morning.
Viewers in certain areas of Arizona got a 30 second clip of a pornographic movie that was somehow fed into the live Comcast feed of the game. Let’s put it this way, if your child saw this, they KNOW what an erection is. My question is: after the Janet Jackson incident during the Super Bowl 38 halftime show, how could this have happened?
Incidentally, the Cardinals lost the game.
The Moral of the story: Since Super Bowls are now routinely X rated, it is wise to watch the entire game with your children. You never know when that one thing you don’t want them to see will pop up and you will have some explaining to do.
© 2010 StrangeRush.com
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MANHATTAN, New York-
Everyone remembers the tragic oil spill on March 24, 1989 of the Exxon Valdez, where the tanker hit Prince William Sound’s Bligh Reef, and spilled approximately 10.8 million gallons of crude oil into the ocean; an ecological disaster still be felt today, more than 20 years later. I know, some of you have been trying to forget about that mishap for years, I’m sorry to have reminded you of it. I guess you could say Exxon is not perfect, and that all companies will make mistakes, but the Valdez, that was a biggie and I believe/hope Exxon is still paying for it today out of their deep pockets.
But what about other mistakes the company has made? Mistakes that are more comical in nature than anything else, and don’t really cause any damage to anyone or anything, but really leave you asking yourself, “What the hell is going on?” That’s exactly what Manhattan accountant Frank Van Buren was asking himself after a recent dealing with Exxon. Van Buren is a business owner, and for 17 years has loyally used an Exxon gas card for his company.
One day when Van Buren noticed his card was about to expire, he naturally called customer service and ordered two replacement cards. He received the cards, but two weeks later he received a mysterious box from Texas (left on his front doorstep). In the box he found 1,000 exact matches of the two cards he had already received with his name and account number on each. Immediately, Van Buren called Exxon to complain. Embarrassed and apologetic by the mistake, the Exxon representative asked him to immediately shred the cards, which he did over a three hour period.
End of story? Not quite. Not too long after another box arrived on his door step, looking much like the first box. The mystery box was easily identified on round two, another 1,000 card each in Van Buren’s name and account number. More upset this time, he called Exxon again and they said they had no idea what was going on, but would inquire with Citibank, who handles Exxon’s accounts. Citibank was also baffled and apologetic. Van Buren said he did not want to deal with the cards on round two and wanted to return them, but the return was refused……are you kidding me? In the end it was also disclosed that none of the 2,000 extra cards had any activation stickers, that are used to prevent identity theft. Hmmmmm……. the last time I saw a credit card without an activation sticker was, um, never.
The moral of the story: Some billion dollar companies need to spend a few more billion and get their #$@& together.
© 2010 StrangeRush.com
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BUDAPEST, Hungary-
I hope everyone had a great New Year and was safe during the entire holiday season. God only knows how much alcohol StrangeRush.com readers drank during the holiday season. So, as a celebration of the new year and the vast amounts of alcohol you all consumed, let’s start this year off and let me ask you, care for a little rum?
When it all started it was supposed to be a lot of fun, and it was for the most part. What is a group of guys supposed to do when they are working on a home renovation and the person in charge supplies them with a virtual endless supply of good alcohol? Where on Earth can you go and renovate a home all while getting hammered knocking out a 300-liter barrel of fine Jamaican Rum? I have to admit, it does sound like a lot of fun. In America it would be highly unlikely a group of workers would be allowed near a home under renovation while drinking. Maybe a little beer, but that’s about it, nothing hard like rum. And the workers found the rum to have such a unique taste that they even bottled some to take home.
So, as the story goes, they finished the entire barrel and went to move it out of the way so they could continue their work, but they found it to be exceptionally heavy. Naturally, they opened the barrel to figure out why it was so heavy, and it was like something out of a horror movie. The body of a pickled man fell out.
The explanation came that 20 years earlier the wife of the man had put his body into the barrel and shipped it to avoid the cost and paperwork needed for an official return. It was unknown why she needed to ship him, I would assume he was Hungarian. She had since died, so no explanation was available.
The moral of the story: If you EVER open a barrel of rum and find a dead body, stick your finger as far down your throat as humanly possible and puke until you are completely dehydrated. Although, I would assume a finger in the throat would be unnecessary, however, under the circumstances nature should take care of such needed actions.
© 2010 StrangeRush.com
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10
Just a Quick Visit to the ER
0 Comments | Posted by Ryan in Say It Aint So, The Best of StrangeRush.com
DALLAS, Texas-
I never did watch the show ER, but I know it was one of the most popular TV shows going for 15 straight years. I’d imagine its appeal came from a combination of the humor, romance, and drama interlaced with chaos, the educational value, and a dash of good acting. Okay, I know it had more than a dash, I saw a few episodes over the years and I know the acting was solid and it gave a few of today’s most well known actors and actresses their start. But how accurate was its depiction of a real ER? Honestly, I have no idea, but I’d imagine that a show that popular and long running had to have quite a bit of reality weaved into its numerous plot lines. Given that it was set in Chicago, all the more reason to believe the constant chaos was somewhat based in reality.
Speaking of a real ER, luckily I have only had the pleasure of visiting one once in the last 10 or so years. It was moderately busy when we went, but we were in and out in an hour with a nice patch of Dermabond on my son’s forehead. Where was Dermabond when I was between the ages of 5 and 12? I know my parents would have loved for that stuff to have been medically available 30 years ago. For those of you who are not familiar with Dermabond it’s basically super glue for skin, used instead of stitches (and believe me it works well). My son had run into a wall and cracked open his melon and the doctor just glued him up, and took all of two minutes to do so. Overall, that ER visit was fairly easy and uneventful, two minutes with the doctor, an hour at the ER overall, and we were on the road again with a 4-year-old and a gauze patch on his forehead. It wasn’t until a few weeks later that we received the ER bill for nearly $1,000. What the hell is insurance for anyway? But horrific insurance stories are for other posts. I’m sure I can find some great insurance stories to write about in the future.
Okay, Okay, I know, get to the point already. You want to know what this post is about, right? Yes, it is about an ER, I promise I would never lead you astray.
So what about an ER in Dallas? Could it too be as chaotic as the fictional ER in Chicago? It’s a big enough city, so I’d imagine it could be similar. So when Amber Joy Milbrodt fractured a bone in her right leg while playing volleyball she went to the Parkland Memorial Hospital ER in Dallas, Texas. Milbrodt arrived at the ER and checked in and saw a triage nurse. She was then asked to wait in the waiting room and that is exactly what she did. Then she waited some more, and some more, and waited, and waited, and waited. 19 hours in all until she eventually left without ever being seen by a doctor or anyone else.
After the 19 hour eternal wait for nothing, Milbrodt elected to go home and rest her leg in the hopes that it would begin to heal on its own, and luckily for her, that is exactly what it did. Then a couple of weeks later, the young volleyball player received a letter from the hospital. And as it turns out, it wasn’t a letter at all, but a bill for $162.
Shocked at the outrageous outcome of her brief (and unfulfilling) visit to the ER, Milbrodt contacted the Dallas Morning News and told them her frustrating story. Doing good investigative work and trying to get the whole picture, the news contacted the hospital for its side of the story. According to the hospital’s vice president in charge of billing, Ms. Milbrodt was not charged for waiting (Oh, thank God!!) she was charged for the couple of minutes it took the triage nurse to assess her and check her in. Well, now it all makes sense, Mr. Vice President in Charge of Billing. I’m thinking you’d have done a lot better and made more sense by going on record and saying, “No comment.”
The Moral of the story: Yes, our nation’s hospitals are far from perfect and some are just plain %@$#&! up.
© 2009 StrangeRush.com
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SHAKOPEE, Minnesota-
When I was 18 I had to have an appendectomy. Not everyone has had the pleasure of having their appendix removed, but let me tell you it’s no fun at all, and no one is immune to the possibility. I remember it like it was yesterday. The evening before I thought I had eaten something bad because the whole night I felt like I had food poisoning. The next morning I went to the doctor and it was determined I had an appendicitis and my appendix had to be removed immediately. Even though appendectomies are no fun and are a pain in the ass for the person suffering, they are quite common. It is estimated that about 7% of the United State and European populations will have to have an appendectomy. So needless to say appendectomies are quite routine.
I don’t remember too much about the doctor that removed mine, just that he was a nice Irish guy and I knew I wanted it out of me, probably somewhat like a pregnant woman feels in her last stages of labor. After it was all said and done, he had done such a fine job that I was playing college baseball again only seven days later.
In Shakopee, Minnesota a patient went in for a very routine appendectomy. Two days later the hospital pathologist was examining the removed appendix and realized that the appendix was not an actual appendix at all, but a piece of fatty tissue. Not coincidentally the patient had still been complaining of pain and fever, and given the new information was ordered to immediately return to the hospital so the real appendix could be removed. At that point the phantom appendix had already burst causing the patient to spend an additional 11 days in the hospital due to complications of the second operation. Hmmmmm, I wonder if this incompetent doctor did his medical residency removing body parts from the famous child’s game Operation?
The Moral of the story: Many, if not most doctors are competent and wonderful, but some doctors just plain suck.
© 2009 StrangeRush.com
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HEPPNER, Oregon–
Once upon a time, 56 years ago to be exact, there were two beautiful little baby girls born at Pioneer Memorial Hospital in the small Eastern Oregon town of Heppner. The first baby was DeeAnn Angell of Fossil, Oregon and the second was Kay Rene Reed of Condon, Oregon.
Moving forward 56 years into the future, to the present day, and you’ll find both women happy and well adjusted to their adult lives. But one day last year, Bobby Reed, the brother of Kay Rene Reed received an urgent call from an elderly woman who was once both a mutual friend of Bobby and Kay’s mother and also a former neighbor of the Angell family (All four parents are now deceased).
At a meeting between the two the old woman said she had to get something off her chest. She told a story of how before her death, Marjorie Angell (DeeAnn Angell mother) had insisted that back in 1953, after the baby girls had been bathed, that they had been returned to the wrong parents and for the 56 years since both women had been living as members of the other’s biological family.
The old lady had said that Marjorie Angell had always believed a mistake had been made back in 1953, but naturally at that time there was no such thing as DNA testing and therefore, no way to prove which baby was which. Now, with the advances in technology and DNA the hospital mix-up was 100% confirmed. Each woman had been living the other’s life.
The moral of the story: If you want that car they say you should lick the door handle. Why not lick the baby’s armpit?
© 2009 StrangeRush.com
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GUATEMALA CITY-
So many of the StrangeRush.com stories are sprinkled with humor and I find those to be the most enjoyable to write about. This is not one of those stories, but I still find it very strange in so many ways, and extremely hard for one to wrap their comprehension around it.
Dictionary.com defines Brotherhood as 1. the condition or quality of being a brother or brothers; and 2. a fraternal or trade organization. Both definitions apply to this truly sad, but bizarre story. As the saying goes, ‘Blood is thicker than water,’ or at least it should be. Evidently, not always in Guatemala and other parts of South America.
In many parts of South America street gangs rule the cities. And in Guatemala City a sad story came out about two brothers, one 18 and the other only 13. They shared a home, a family, and a bloodline, but what they did not share was an allegiance to the same street gang. They were each members of rival gangs and the tension from the rivalry continuously escalated.
The boys had been in an ongoing argument about their gang affiliations until a firefight in the streets ensued and the younger boy was purposely shot dead by his older blood brother for being a member of the rival gang. The older brother only sustained injuries from the shootout. How would you explain that one to mom?
The Moral of the story: If your big bro is in a gang, and you decide you MUST follow in his footsteps, it may be wise to join his crew.
© 2009 StrangeRush.com
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NARATHIWAT, Thailand-
Getting on the wrong bus seems like a minor inconvenience and typically that’s all it would be. Surely, anyone who rides a bus on a regular basis has done it. No big deal, right? It happens…..it may put you back 15 to 30 minutes, an hour at the most.
In the case of Mrs. Jaeyana Beuraheng of Thailand it was a little more involved than that. For Mrs. Beuraheng it was supposed to be a normal day of shopping. She kissed her eight children goodbye and boarded a bus headed south, just over the border, into Malaysia. Not speaking the local language, on the way home, she accidentally boarded the wrong bus that took her way too far north to Bangkok.
In Bangkok, already 800 distant miles from home, Mrs. Beuraheng found herself again unable to communicate and the noise and traffic of the city to be overwhelming. In her confusion and desperation she boarded another bus in the hopes that it would take her home. Instead, it took her an additional 400 miles north to the city of Chang Mai, and even further away from home.
In Chang Mai she became lost and unable to explain her predicament because no one understood her, and for a while lived on the streets as a beggar. Eventually, officials did a round up of beggars and she was believed to be an illegal immigrant. Because she could not communicate and only made odd sounds she was deemed to be a mute and was handed over to a social services hostel where she lived until one day three students from her home province came for training. They were the first people who had been able to communicate with Mrs. Beuraheng since her ordeal had begun. They started a friendship with her and she shared with them what had happened to her. The students made inquiries and found her youngest son who was 35…..at the time of her disappearance he was a mere 10 year old boy. That’s right, she had been gone for 25 long years and at the ripe old of age of 76, Mrs. Jaeyana Beuraheng had finally made it home to her family who had missed her so much.
“I was shocked and overjoyed when I saw the picture,” said her son. He said he and his brothers and sisters had searched for years in Thailand and Malaysia until they were told their mother had been run over by a train in Yala.
The Moral of the story: If you find yourself in a strange land where no one speaks your language, don’t stop asking for help until you find someone who understands. Otherwise 25 years can pass in a flash.
© 2009 StrangeRush.com
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SAMMAMISH, Washington-
Most Tuesday night TV watchers have either watched or are aware of the syndicated Fox 40 show called House. If you watch the show you know what House means, if not, let me briefly explain: Obviously, House is the name of the show but also stands for the main character on the show, Dr. Gregory House (played by British actor Hugh Laurie). On the show House and his five man team are a group of specialized doctors who diagnose and treat the most obscure human ailments and diseases. Sort of a CSI team for unknown diseases. House and his team, in the short 43 minutes that an episode runs, are able to take very obscure and unknown patient ailments and diagnose them. Obviously, medical mysteries will never really be solved that quickly, but it is written that way simply for one hour of television entertainment.
So where was a real life version of House and Company when 18 year old, high school senior, Jessica Terry needed them? For eight long years Jessica suffered from excruciating stomach pains, that at times completely immobilized her. She often missed school due to the severe pain, vomiting and fever, and diarrhea. Weight loss was also an ongoing issue.
There were ongoing attempts over the years by doctors to try and assist Jessica, but despite their best efforts none of them were able to step up to the plate and tell Jessica what had been troubling her for so many years. All tests showed that everything was normal. But with Jessica’s chronic pain and suffering she knew something was very wrong and finally one day, her ‘House’ came knocking from the most unlikely of places, and Jessica finally got the answers she had sought for so long.
Jessica was suffering from Crohn’s disease. According to WebMD.com Crohn’s disease is a chronic inflammatory disease of the intestines. Symptoms include abdominal pain and diarrhea, sometimes bloody, caused by inflammation of the intestines. Crohn’s can be managed but not cured.
So what about the mystery House character? Jessica found this person in her own high school and in her own Advanced Placement high school science class. The first person that would come to mind would be her teacher, right? Good guess, but wrong. The person who diagnosed the Crohn’s disease after all the years and missed opportunities was sitting right there in Jessica’s own seat in class, none other than Jessica herself.
Using a class microscope and looking at a slide of her own intestinal tissue (slides her own pathologist had said were completely normal) Jessica was able to spot an area of inflamed tissue called a granuloma, which turned out to be a definitive indication that she had Crohn’s disease.
With the microscope Jessica snapped a picture of the granuloma and with the assistance of her teacher they went on the internet to see what they could find. They also email the picture to a pathologist, who within 24 hours confirmed the finding.
Jessica went on record with a KOMO in Seattle and said, “It’s weird I had to solve my own medical problem. There were just no answers anywhere. … I was always sick.”
The Moral of the story: Despite what we’ve been told, medical doctors are not ALWAYS right…..haha.
© 2009 StrangeRush.com
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TUCSON, Arizona-
This is one of those things that is hard to believe could ever happen. But it did and was nothing less than shocking!
On February 1st, 2009, Super Bowl XLIII (aka-Super Bowl 43) was being played between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Arizona Cardinals. It was a good game throughout the first half and the second half only got better. Pittsburgh had led throughout, but with 2:37 remaining in the game, Cardinals’ fans erupted in delight as they watched their star receiver, Larry Fitzgerald, catch a pass across the middle from Kurt Warner, split four Steelers’ defenders and take it 64 yards into the end zone. It was the Cardinals’ first lead of the game, giving them and their fans high hopes that they could pull off the huge upset and win their first Super Bowl title in franchise history. As Fitzgerald celebrated with teammates and looked up at the JumboTron to watch himself sprint into the end zone on replay, Cardinals’ fans watching the game on their televisions in the Tucson, Arizona market got a lot more for their money than they had expected when waking up that morning.
Viewers in certain areas of Arizona got a 30 second clip of a pornographic movie that was somehow fed into the live Comcast feed of the game. Let’s put it this way, if your child saw this, they KNOW what an erection is. My question is: after the Janet Jackson incident during the Super Bowl 38 halftime show, how could this have happened?
Incidentally, the Cardinals lost the game.
The Moral of the story: Since Super Bowls are now routinely X rated, it is wise to watch the entire game with your child. You never know when that one thing you don’t want them to see will pop up and you will have some explaining to do. 
© 2009 StrangeRush.com
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