A Minnesota coffin shop is holding a Halloween sale, offering full-sized coffins for as little as $100.
57-year-old Mike Zoff who opened Affordable Coffins & Artery in St. Paul in January to sell the wooden coffins he makes in his garage, said the business has been profitable enough that he quit his old job as real estate broker to sell coffins full-time.
Zoff said customers often use the coffins for unusual purposes, such as one patron who wanted a coffin with legs to use as a coffee table and several who have asked for shelves in their coffins to allow them to store books.
“It just keeps taking different turns, this business,” Zoff said.
Zoff said he is starting a special Halloween sale at the shop, offering his most basic wooden coffins for $100, a sharp discount from the usual $295-$780 price tag for his coffins. He said he is marketing some of his less-study early works as holiday decorations.
“It’s an undeniable segment of the business, away from the more traditional use,” he said. “The Halloween sale thing, I’ve been getting a call or two a day.”
A public display of anger over love gone wrong — or a celebration over a marriage ended — caused traffic delays on North 21st Street in Superior, Wisconsin, on Wednesday.
Large signs reading “X-HUSBAND SALE” and “FREE” by a pile of discarded belongings in the front yard of 202 N. 21st St. caused passersby to slow down and check out what was there.
But it was the once-green GMC Yukon SUV with flat tires and “cheater” and obscenities spray-painted all over it that slowed traffic to a halt and got the cameras clicking.
Police arrived at the house in mid-afternoon and talked to a woman inside. The vandalized vehicle was towed from the driveway in front of the house a short time later to keep traffic flowing.
Superior Police Sgt. William Lear said there’s no law against spray painting a vehicle in one’s own yard.
“If it’s a running vehicle and someone wants to paint their own car, they can do it,” he said.
What about questionable language painted on it?
“Depends on the language, there’s a fine line there,” Lear said. “If it’s creating a disturbance, if there’s threats, if it’s blocking traffic, we can tow it.”
According to court records, a woman who lived at that address filed for divorce against her husband in Douglas County Circuit Court last July.
The couple got their marriage licence in 1997, records show.
A neighbour, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the incident began on Tuesday after the divorce became final. She said the vehicle was spray-painted by several people and the items put in the front yard between 4 and 8 p.m. That’s when people started stopping for a closer look.
“It looked like they had a painting party,” the neighbour said.
“She cleaned out her husband’s stuff.” It was a getting-rid-of-the-husband type of thing, she said.
“I guess it was her kind of relief, her way to get rid of her anger,” the woman said.
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A woman in Nebraska is selling a Chicken McNugget she says bears a resemblance to President George Washington, to raise funds for her church.
Rebekah Speights of Dakota City said that she got the unique McNugget from a Sioux City McDonald’s three years ago and had kept it frozen until Sunday, when a sermon at the Family Worship Center inspired her to sell the item on eBay to benefit the church.
The Washington McNugget was listed on eBay Monday and soon received its first bid of $100.
“We just screamed,” Speights said. “We don’t know who it is or where they’re from. That bid came within the first hour.”
The McNugget had a high bid of $321 Thursday with six days of bidding remaining.
Speights said the church is trying to raise $15,000 to sent 50 children to a Dayton, Iowa, summer camp.
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The South African Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals is to investigate a scheme in which live rabbits would be sold with loaves of bread for consumption to people living in South African townships.
This after a packaging company tipped off the anti-animal cruelty organisation following the most “bizarre” enquiry they had received.
The quote enquiry, sent via e-mail by Liz Jones, a production manager at Inspiration Advertising, requested a minimum of 10,000 boxes which would house a live rabbit each and a loaf of bread to be sold in townships.
The e-mail read: “The recipient will slaughter the rabbit and eat it with the loaf of bread. The box will need air holes to enable the rabbit to breathe.”
It said the box should have a handle – “the cheapest would probably be to punch handles into the cardboard”. The material must be “some sort of fluted board – price sensitive flute – but strong enough to hold the rabbit and bread.
The box would need a divider to separate the rabbit and bread. The base of the box will need to be lined with something that can ‘catch’ the faeces/urine and then wrap around the left overs after slaughtering and be thrown away.”
The sender of the e-mail, Jones, denied it was a hoax. “I’m not involved with the rabbits. I’m only quoting the boxes for a client. I want to speak to the concerned person at the SPCA. There is no need to be concerned, there won’t be any cruelty to animals,” she said.
She refused to give any information about where the rabbits would come from or who her client was.
SPCA chief executive Allan Perrins said they would do everything in their power to ensure that the scheme doesn’t go through.
“The concept leaves me cold and disgusted,” he said. “It is unlawful to confine any animal in any space for any length of time without the animal having adequate ventilation, access to fresh drinking water, an adequate supply of appropriate food and the ability to behave naturally and instinctively. Placing a live rabbit in a sealed box in our opinion would be in contravention of the Animals Protection Act. We would consider such a deed to be a deliberate act of cruelty and totally immoral and inhumane.”
He said they hoped that members of the public would not support such a “cruel practice” and commended the packaging manufacturers for alerting the SPCA.
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Homeless advocates in Sweden, say that the sale of a new luxury duvet cover that resembles cardboard boxes is insulting.
The covers which costs $104 each, went on sale last month at the high-end NK department store, drawing ire from a Stockholm homeless charity.
Advocate Yvonne Borg said she couldn’t see how sleeping under what appears to be cardboard would be “particularly pleasant” and said she saw the marketing as exploiting homeless people.
The bedding was designed by Dutch company Snurk, which says it donates a small portion of profits to homeless groups, the newspaper said.
Department store spokesman Jorgen Eriksson told the paper exploitation “is not the purpose” of the marketing.
“One buys it to show awareness,” he said.
The duvet covers have been selling quickly and the department store said it was nearly out of stock, the report said.
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A snack called Nuckin Futs will go on sale after a lawyer’s successful argument that the word “f…” is a normal part of Australian speech and so cannot be deemed offensive under trademark rules.
The trademark application for “Nuckin Futs” was at first rejected by the register as being scandalous and offensive due to its similarity to the phrase “f…ing nuts”.
The Trade Marks Examiner ruled that “Nuckin Futs” was an “obvious spoonerism” and deemed it ineligible for registration under section 42 of the Trade Marks Act.
Under the law such terms must be rejected if likely to be regarded as shameful, offensive or shocking to the ordinary person. But solicitor Jamie White, Director of law firm Pod Legal, who submitted the application on behalf of his Gold Coast client, argued that “Nuckin Futs” was not offensive because it was commonplace in everyday Australian language.
In a five-page legal document, which catalogues the history of controversial product names, Mr White argued the words “f…” or “f…ing” were “now part of the universal discourse of the ordinary Australian.
“We submit that whilst there may be a mere sentimental objection or mere distaste to NUCKIN FUTS, this is not a sufficient ground for rejection of the Trade Mark, particularly since a substantial number of people would not find the words shocking,” the submission to the Examiner says.
Mr White said: “Over the passage of time, certain words which may have caused major offence in earlier times would now be acceptable as trade marks in certain markets, namely, the Australian market.”
Almost a year after the initial application was rejected, the trademark examiner has agreed to accept the “Nuckin Futs” trademark – on the condition that the owner would not market it to kids.
Mr White assured the Examiner that the product, mostly comprising of edible nuts, would not be marketed to children as his client only intended to sell it in pubs, nightclubs and other entertainment venues.
