Rags to Riches
1. "From down and out to filthy rich"
< http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/12/11/1071125595213.html >
"Three weeks ago, the unemployed 44-year-old was eating beef stew out of
a can, and scraping by on food and cash donations from neighbours and
charities. His water and power supply had long been cut off, he hadn't
worked since August when he was laid off from his job as a cab driver,
and he hadn't bathed in months... A gamble on the Illinois state lottery
changed all that, turning the down-at-heel Gatzke into a multi-
millionaire overnight when he netted $US5.5 million ($A7.46 million)"
2. "Bankrupt man wins lottery"
< http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_1187256.html >
"A car park attendant with just 53p in the bank bought a lottery ticket
on the day he was declared bankrupt - and won £47 million"
3. "Street criminal becomes top athlete in Brazil"
< http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_811618.html >
"One day Ana Luiza said she was watching TV on a shop window and she saw
the movie Chariots of Fire and felt inspired to run as an athlete"
4. "Homeless man offering Titanic plate on e-Bay"
< http://www.kwwl.com/Global/story.asp?S=2644897 >
"Now Sherman -- who reportedly has been sleeping under a freeway bridge
near downtown Dallas -- is offering the small plate for auction. It's
listed on e-Bay with an opening bid of just under 50-thousand dollars"
5. "Faulty Fortis ATM allows homeless to withdraw EUR100,000"
< http://www.finextra.com/fullstory.asp?id=13175 >
"A faulty cash machine owned by Fortis Bank in Rotterdam allowed 20
homeless social security recipients to withdraw EUR100,000"
----
At work we have a "social" mailing list where people share links to funny
sites and jokes. Last week someone posted a list of links which looked
rather familiar: it was in fact a forward of my "Audacious Heists" B-List
post from mid-December. I'd like to know how many individual forwards it
took to get back to me in that time (about 40 days).
