Lead Story
The Entrepreneurial Spirit
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The East Oregonian of Pendleton, Oregon, reported in December on the local First Church of God and its attempt to finance a missionary trip to Costa Rica in March by selling rolls of two-ply Angel Soft toilet paper. And in November Agence France-Presse reported on Portuguese toilet paper company Renova, which had recently started selling black toilet paper in France and planned to introduce it in North America this year. Renova promotional material described the tissue as “elegant, rebellious, alternative and eternally fashionable.” (The word “uninformative” appeared nowhere in the description.)
Mike Bolognue inadvertently opened an alcohol-free sports bar in Plain Township, Ohio, in November. Bolognue had already invested $560,000 in the business before state officials pointed out at the last minute that the site is located in a dry precinct–something no one had noticed when he’d first applied for his liquor license. He said he’d try to keep the place running as a restaurant until township residents can vote on whether to approve alcohol sales in May.
Police in Pueblo, Colorado, attempted to question Selina Valdez, 28, and Daniel Marquez, 41, in late December about their possible involvement in a counterfeiting operation. Shortly afterward, investigators said, the pair apparently began to flush huge quantities of counterfeit money down their toilet. When officers came back with a warrant a week and a half later, they found the home’s floors covered in standing water and sewage and wads of fake bills clogging the plumbing lines for nearly 100 feet; adding to the stench were the plastic shopping bags into which Valdez and Marquez had evidently been relieving themselves since the toilet stopped working.
Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): illustration/Chuck Shepherd.
