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Overnight Briefing & General Reality Check - Aug 13, 2013
August 13, 2013
Have an opinion? Add your comment below. Sample content intended for show prep.
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Grace notes:
Ok, you can chuckle if you want to, but one man's ABBA collection just sold at an auction over the weekend for $86,000-dollars! The UK's Daily Mail says Thomas Nordin had more than 25,000 items from the Swedish supergroup in his collection, divided into 442 lots. A purple ABBA baseball jacket sold for nearly $6,000-dollars, but the biggest get was a private recording the group made for its manager, STIG (sty) ANDERSON. It sold for just under $8,000-dollars. (Marino)
Animal Stories:
Warning: note content. We're talking about genitals here.
If you're going swimming in Sweden, you better watch out: people have spotted a fish with a penchant for biting men's... well, private parts.
The strait of Oresund, which separates the southern Swedish province of Scania from the Danish island of Zealand was where a fisherman found a eight-inch long pacu fish. The pacu is a species native to the Amazon and Orinoco basins of South America, and it is generally a vegetarian species, despite being a cousin to the piranha.
However, the pacu has a particular taste for tree nuts-- and they are known to be less than discerning when coming face to face with any nuts. According to British fisherman JEREMY WADE, the fish have earned the disturbing nickname of (ahem) "ball cutter." They tend to be tiny but on rare occasions are known to have grown to as much as 55 pounds.
One fish expert told Sweden's The Local, "They bite because they're hungry, and testicles sit nicely in their mouth."
The Swedes aren't exactly sure how the fish even got into the waterway. Some have guessed that an amateur fish collector emptied a tank filled with the pacu into a stream, which then flowed into the strait. On the plus side, the pacu, as a native to warmer waters, shouldn't find the frigid strait all that hospitable.
Still, one expert says that "Anyone choosing to bathe in the Oresund these days had best keep their swimsuits well tied." In other words, it's not a good time to be skinny-dipping.
Editor's note: I could go there but I think this is way too easy. (Maiman)Space, the Final Frontier:
We may have finally discovered the actual Barbie World.
Scientists have found a pink planet, much like our own solar system's gas giants, orbiting a sun-like star. We're not likely to ever visit it-- it's fifty-seven light years away, and it's still glowing from the heat of its formation. The average temperature planetside is 460 degrees Fahrenheit.
Aside from the interesting magenta shade, this is an interesting astronomical find, because this planet is waaaaay outside normal range for planetary formation from a star. Neptune, the farthest planet from our sun, is about thirty Astronomical Units (AUs) away from its star. This planet is a whopping forty-three AUs from its own parent star.
The planet has yet to be named. We're all hoping it's not "Ken." (AB)Designer Update:
RIHANNA's new fall-winter collection for River Island features lots of camouflage and crop tops. NY Magazine says the collection of sweatshirts, t-shirts, waistbands and hats feature the G-4-LIFE logo. That's for her "G-4-L" song... "Gangster for Life." (Bartha)
What's hot in Hollywood from Star magazine:
--Umami Burger, the L.A. burger giant opened it's first location in NYC, www.umami.com
--Touch by ALYSSA MILANO eye glasses, www.coastal.com/glasses/touch-by-alyssa-milano
--Banana Republic's ISSA LONDON collection, www.bananarepublic.com (Myers)London tabloids:
SIMON COWELL may be the bravest man on planet earth. The British tabloid the London Sun reports the cranky reality fixture met with his baby mama's current husband, ANDREW SILVERMAN, at the Francis S. Gabreski airport in Westhampton Beach, New York. Word is the former friends chatted it up for three hours after Simon flew in from Las Vegas and even shook hands while saying their goodbyes. (Lee)
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