WEIRD NEWS

Kid Gets Full Ride Offers from 20 Top Schools

Houston 12th-grader Micheal Brown heard back from the first college he applied to back in December. He was accepted to Stanford, a school he had dreamed of attending for years. But since then, he's been accepted to every single one of the 20 universities to which he applied - many of the country's best - from four Ivy League schools to small and "highly selective" schools. And he's been offered a full scholarship to every single one! The 17-year-old, who plans on majoring in political science, has narrowed it down to his top seven to Harvard, Princeton, Northwestern, Yale, Penn, Stanford, Georgetown, and will spend the next month touring schools before making a decision on May 1. Brown says, "It's something I'm proud of because I see my hard work paying off; determination paying off; sacrifices paying off." He credits his mom, Berthinia Rutledge-Brown saying, "After she got divorced, she decided she needed to get a better job so she got a college degree and now works two jobs as a licensed chemical dependency counselor. The best lesson she taught me was through her actions and her working hard and dedicating herself." Brown has a 4.68 GPA; is active with Mirabeau B. Lamar High School's debate team and student government; has worked with political campaigns; and has been involved with initiatives that match kids from low-income communities with higher-ed opportunities. In addition to the full rides he's been offered, he's secured $260,000 in additional scholarship money. (Newser)

Mom Can Eat Some Burgers!

There's good reason why 38-year-old Molly Schuyler is ranked the top food warrior in the world of competitive eating. Schuyler just devoured a large stack of eight hamburgers totaling an astounding 55 ounces in under two minutes. She was competing in the annual 55 Challenge, an event sponsored by the fast food chain Hwy 55, in Raleigh, North Carolina. For some perspective on just how impressive a feat it is, a McDonald's Big Mac holds two 1.6-ounce beef patties. That means Schuyler ate the equivalent of slightly more than 17 Big Macs - but with two buns at opposite ends of the pile. The mother-of-four from Sacramento, California, makes a living from competitive eating. She weighs 120 pounds and is considered by some to be one of the best competitive eaters in the world - going from contest to contest, eating massive amounts of food faster than anyone else. Her salary is the prize money, which can range anywhere from $200 to $22,000 per contest. During her six-year career in competitive eating, she has consumed 119 dumplings in two minutes, 440 wings in 30 minutes, and in just 20 minutes she ate three 72-ounce steaks (along with three baked potatoes, three side salads, three rolls and three shrimp cocktails). (Daily Mail)

While You Operate on My Brain, I'll Just Play Flute

To be a professional flute player with uncontrollable shaking of the head and hands is less than ideal, and after years of battling a neurological disorder called essential tremor, Anna Marie Whitlock Henry decided she'd had enough. So the 63-year-old underwent brain surgery last week to remedy the tremors - and she played her flute throughout the surgery. Henry underwent deep brain stimulation, a procedure in which electrodes are placed in certain parts of a patient's brain to emit electrical impulses to counter any abnormal impulses. But for doctors to be able to see if the surgery was working, she had to stay awake during the surgery to perform certain tasks. Henry says she inherited her condition from her dad and started experiencing symptoms in junior high. Everyday actions like writing and sewing soon became difficult, and meds stopped working, but for Henry, the most devastating effect was on her flute playing. As for whether Henry's surgery worked, she says it was "like flipping a switch." After the procedure, she now has handwriting that's readable for "the first time in decades," and her flute playing has never been better. (KHOU)

Sounds Fishy

A traffic stop turned into a citation for a shark violation for a Miami man in the Keys on a fishing trip. Monroe County Sheriff's Office said when Deputy Nelson Sanchez stopped 63-year-old Jose Medina in Islamorada, he noticed fishing rods in the car. Medina and his passenger said they'd been fishing near the Indian Key Fill and showed off some snapper in a small cooler. Then the deputy asked about the larger cooler and Medina said it was "only a shark." When Deputy Sanchez flipped the top on the larger cooler, he found a cleaned shark that Medina, a spearfisherman, admitted was a lemon shark. Sanchez said Medina claimed he saw the shark on the shoreline and didn't want it to go to waste. But lemon sharks are a protected species in Florida waters, so he was cited for harvesting a protected shark species. (Miami Herald)

Good News: It Only Takes 50 Years to Mend a Broken Heart

A half-century after getting a divorce, a Kentucky couple plans to get married again. It seems 83-year-old Harold Holland and 78-year-old Lillian Barnes will exchange wedding vows on April 14 in Lexington. Their grandson will perform the ceremony at a local Baptist church. Holland and Barnes first were married on Christmas Eve in 1955. They had five children together before splitting up. Holland says his job kept him away from the family prior to the breakup. Both remarried and their respective spouses died in 2015. After that, Holland and Barnes attended a family reunion, and by last December, they were talking marriage again. Holland says, "We decided we want to walk the last mile together." (New York Post)

Finding Dory in Other Countries

If you're over in Sweden, and you decide to watch Finding Dory on Netflix - please be advised that the ending is just a little different. Not the story ending mind you, but just before the credits role and the words "The End" appear in the American version, the word "Slut" appears in the Swedish version. No, our Swedish friends haven't lost their minds. The word "slut" loosely translates to "final" in Swedish, so it isn't considered rude in the country in which is appears. But for visiting Americans, many are finding it pretty funny. (Newser)

What the What?

Every real man knows that just because you've got a knife sticking out of your back, there's no reason you can't enjoy a good beer. Police say a 27-year-old got into a scrap with another 20-year-old man at the Beerwah Hotel on Australia's Sunshine Coast. Both were kicked out of the bar where the fight continued until the older man was stabbed. But despite the knife still being lodged in his back, he went back into the bar and ordered another beer. Only after he finished his pint did he decide to head over to Sunshine Coast University Hospital. A Queensland police spokesman said that there had been a "substantial" amount of alcohol involved and that the two men knew one another. The victim does not want to press charges.(Metro)

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