Some people will buy anything associated with a celebrity, even false teeth!

In England, A partial set of British wartime Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s gold-mounted dentures has fetched over three times the estimate.

The false teeth, specially designed to disguise Churchill’s lisp, were sold by the son of the technician who was commissioned to make them.

They had been expected to make a maximum of 5,000 pounds. By the time of the sale the dentures sold for 15,200 pounds or the equivalent of $23,770.

The buyer, a collector of Churchill memorabilia from Gloucestershire, also owns the microphone with which Churchill announced the end of the war in Europe in 1945.

Wednesday is the 65th birthday of cartoonist Jim Davis, the creator of the Garfield comic strip.

Garfield is my favorite comic and I still read it in the paper everyday. In fact, it was my love of Garfield as a kid, which helped me learn how to read.

I found it interesting that a study by the Canadian Council on Learning (CCL) has found comic books help develop a child’s ability to follow a sequence of events, interpret symbols and predict what will happen next.

The study found that comics especially help boys catch up to girls in reading achievement. The CCL suggests comic books could hold the key to promoting literacy in boys.

So the question is, should comic books be used in schools to help children learn to read? Jim Smalley will talk about this on Thursday’s edition of Newsline at Noon on 620 CKRM.

French fries are great! Whether they come with gravy, ketchup or as poutine, most people love fries… just not what a load of fries can do to your waistline, but that’s another story.

In Germany, there’s a fry shortage! A heat wave has baked the country and this year the hot, dry weather has led to a meager harvest of the extra-large potatoes used to produce the ideal-length French fry.

The German Farmers’ Association is warning consumers to brace themselves for shorter fries! The smaller potatoes mean the fries will probably be 1.8 inches long at best, down from the usual 2.2 inches.

But hey, even a small fry can be a great one!

A great thing to enjoy on a hot summer weekend is to kick back and relax with a cold one.

But how about kicking back with some truly unique beer?

In Scotland, The strongest and most expensive beer ever created sold out within hours Friday.

The beer has an alcohol content of 55% and comes in a bottle inside a stuffed dead squirrel!

I would have called it “Dead Squirrel Beer,” but the brewery has labeled it “The End of History.”

This beer is not going over well with those in the animal rights circles, saying “It’s pointless and it’s very negative to use dead animals.”

The brew is also the most expensive beer ever sold selling for $1000 a bottle!

All sold out within four hours of going on sale.

So how does the beer taste? The brewery describes it as a “complex” beer with a multitude of flavours including honey, mint and cinnamon.

The brewery recommends sipping the drink “much like you would a malt whiskey”, served up in a spirit glass rather than a pint glass.

Here’s a picture of what the beer bottle looks like:

Facebook has now made half a billion friends, meaning one in every 14 people on Earth has joined the social networking website, the company confirmed.

Six years after Mark Zuckerberg’s company got its start in a Harvard dorm room, Facebook has taken aim at reaching one billion members, matching the number of Google users.

Last summer, Facebook had 250 million members and the website has gained 100 million new members since February of this year.

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg said in a blog post he could “never (have) imagined all of the ways people would use Facebook.”

A few Facebook facts:

- If Facebook was a country it would be the third largest, behind only China and India

- Facebook has 15 times more users than Canada’s entire population

- Facebook has 100 billion hits a day

- There are more than 50 billion photos on Facebook

Sometimes when organizations cut back funds their just asking for trouble.

Take this case from Argentina where two prisoners escaped from a prison so understaffed that it used mannequins to man its watchtowers!

Prison staff made a doll with a ball and a cap so prisoners would see a shadow and think they were being guarded. Well two inmates obviously figured this out and escaped by climbing over a wall.

The prison has since admitted that only two of the 15 watchtowers have real guards!

In fact, money is so tight the prison has broken security cameras and burned-out television monitors that have gone unrepaired for months.

Photo courtesy of leaderpost.com

The party is underway this weekend at the Craven Country Jamboree. After long lineups to get into the gates from Wednesday through Friday, getting to the site is now easy.

Being a wet year, it’s a common sight to see people wearing rubber boots and as every year at Craven, every so often you see someone who has mud from head to toe!

One thing I’ve really noticed this year are those creative t-shirts some people are wearing. If I were to repeat some of the things printed on the tees my mom would have to wash my mouth out with soap!

The entertainment continues all weekend and again the Jamboree has brought together the best concert entertainment value for your money.

He’s a Canadian news legend, having been part of Canadian television since it’s early years and after forty years as a national news anchor; Lloyd Robertson has announced he will retire next year.

Lloyd Robertson made the announcement at the end of Thursday’s newscast signaling the end of an era in Canadian broadcasting.

I have watched the CTV National News most of my life and regard Lloyd Robertson as one of the best in the business and his presence will certainly be missed.

Today, Lisa LaFlamme was named the successor to Lloyd Robertson and over the next will share the anchor chair before assuming the position full-time next year.

Lloyd Robertson will have marked 35 years with CTV by the time of his 2011 retirement. After leaving the anchor chair, Lloyd Robertson says he will remain with the network in other roles including remaining as co-host of W5.

There’s nothing like a burger fresh off the barbecue! This time of year the aroma of the grill is in the air every evening.

But how about this for a burger?

An Australian cafe is claiming a world record after cooking a giant hamburger with an 81 kg (178 lb) patty that took 12 hours to cook and four men to flip.

The monster burger cooked up by a Sydney café weighed in at 90 kg in total, eclipsing the previous record of 84 kg.

To flip the burger a set of special metal holders and a metal plate with one at the bottom and one at the top, locked them together and the four men flipped the burger.

Now this burger has toppings! Besides the monster patty, 120 eggs, 150 slices of cheese, 1.5 kg of beetroot, 2.5 kg of tomatoes and almost 2 kg of lettuce all topped off with a special sauce on a giant sesame seed bun.

The burger will be on the menu at the cafe for the next year in order to meet the conditions for a Guinness world record, but will set hungry patrons back around $1,500 and fries cost extra!

The actual record-setting burger

I hate telemarketers! There, I said it and probably most reading this will agree.

The national do-not-call list has been around for quite some time and if you’re on it you might still be getting unwanted call from telemarketers.

Critics of the national do-not-call list say it’s no surprise.

More than 300,000 complaints have been filed against unwanted telemarketers in less than two years.

The Federal government has handed out $73,000 in fines, but as of this past March 1st, only $250 has been collected.

Critics say the law needs significant retooling to provide a genuine, effective system against unwanted calls.

When you think about it, the law has exceptions for charities, political parties, newspapers and businesses with a prior business relationship, virtually all calls can continue even when a number is on the do-not-call list.

With that in mind, I have to say the money I pay for call display and voice-mail is worth every penny to avoid talking to a telemarketer!