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Bah, Humbug! A Lump O’ Coal To Ya!

Thursday, December 3rd, 2009

Here’s one from our friends at the BBC across the pond…..

UNSEASONABLE ROW AT SANTA GROTTO

 
 

Glen Ross wearing Santa hat
Santa’s little helper Glen Ross looks downcast

There was little sign of the festive spirit at Santa’s grotto at the Knocknagoney shopping centre in east Belfast.

The grotto at the local Tesco car park, which has been in operation for the past four days, was forced to shut due to a complaint about noisy music.

Santa and his little helpers – organiser Glen Ross and three elves – did not take the eviction lightly and have staged a sit-in.

However, a solution may be on the cards after Tesco offered Santa another site.

The unseemly and unseasonable row followed a complaint made by residents living near the store.

‘Not happy

The traditional grotto, which gives a percentage of each admission to the muscular dystrophy charity, was meant to run up until 22 December.

Glen Ross said he was “definitely not very happy”.

“It’s been absolutely disgusting, I just cannot believe they are stopping Santa for Christmas. It’s just unbelievable,” he said.

“We built the grotto a week and a half ago and Santa arrived there last Thursday.

“It’s been open for five days, there are over 100 kids who have come through the doors and we’ve trying to make a few quid for Christmas for charity.”

Mr Ross denied the music could be called Christmas rap.

“I wouldn’t say Silent Night and Jingle Bells was Christmas rap,” he said.

“It hasn’t been that loud.”

Tesco have indicated they are willing to move the Santa grotto to another part of the site, at no cost, and well away from the neighbours who complained about the noise.

Santa’s team, however, said they had not heard of Tesco’s offer and are determined to stay put.

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Speaking Of Stupid…..

Monday, November 23rd, 2009

Here is one from our friends north of the border.  The lesson to be learned is — if you are going to make up being sick, don’t post pictures of what you really did while you were sick!

Canadian woman loses benefits over Facebook photo

AP

Sun Nov 22, 1:20 pm ET

BROMONT, Quebec – A Canadian woman on long-term sick leave for depression says she lost her benefits because her insurance agent found photos of her on Facebook in which she appeared to be having fun.

Nathalie Blanchard has been on leave from her job at IBM in Bromont, Quebec, for the last year.

The Canadian Broadcasting Corp. reported Saturday she was diagnosed with major depression and was receiving monthly sick-leave benefits from insurance giant Manulife.

But the payments dried up this fall and when Blanchard called Manulife, she says she was told she was available to work because of Facebook.

She said her insurance agent described several pictures Blanchard posted on Facebook, including ones showing her having a good time at a Chippendales bar show, at her birthday party and on a sun holiday.

Blanchard said Manulife told her it’s evidence she is no longer depressed. She’s fighting to get her benefits reinstated and says her lawyer is exploring what the next step should be.

Blanchard told the CBC that on her doctor’s advice, she tried to have fun, including nights out at her local bar with friends and short getaways to sun destinations, as a way to forget her problems.

Manulife wouldn’t comment on Blanchard’s case, but did say they would not deny or terminate a claim solely based on information published on Web sites such as Facebook.

Posted in Aaarrgh, Life In Stupidland, News | No Comments »

Couple Busted for Refusing to Pay Tip

Thursday, November 19th, 2009

Here is a story from the NBC affiliate in Philadelphia.  Throughout my adult life, I have been called a big fat jerk and cheap for not wanting to eat at any restaurant where the gratuity is tacked onto the bill.  I have always argued that if the wait staff knows they will get a tip, they have no incentive to provide good service.  Here is such a horror story.

Patrons claim service was so bad, they had to get napkins and silverware for themselves

By DAVID CHANG

If you’re frustrated by poor service at a restaurant, think twice before you decide to not tip. You may be in for a bit more than just a dirty look from the waiter. 

“Nobody, nobody wants to be forced to pay a tip or be arrested for terrible service,” Leslie Pope said when her happy hour ended in handcuffs.

Pope and John Wagner were hauled away by police and charged with theft for not paying the mandatory 18 percent gratuity totaling $16 after eating at the Lehigh Pub in Bethlehem, Pa. with six friends. 

Pope claimed that they had to wait nearly an hour for their order and that she had to get napkins and silverware for the table herself. 

“At this point I became very annoyed because I had already gone up to the bar myself to have my soda refilled because the waitress never came back,” Pope said. 

After the $73 bill came, the group paid for food, drinks, and tax but refused to pay the tip. After explaining the bad service to the bartender in charge, Pope claimed he took their money and called police. The couple was handcuffed and placed in the back of a police car. 

“I understand that, you know, we didn’t pay the gratuity, but it was a gratuity, it wasn’t something that was required,” said Wagner.

The owner admitted that the group waited unusually long for their food, but said the pub was extremely busy that night. He said managers offered to comp the food, a claim the couple denies ever happened. 

“Obviously we would have liked for the patron and the establishment to have worked this out without getting the police involved,” said Deputy Police Commissioner Stuart Bedics. 

Police charged them with theft since the gratuity was part of the actual bill. However, it is doubtful that the charges will hold up in front of a judge. The couple is scheduled to appear in court next month.

Why should this couple have had to pay for crappy service?  They shouldn’t have.  Wait staff should be tipped on the level of service they provide; that is why it is called a GRATUITY!  I will continue my one-person boycott of restaurants that tack the gratuity onto the bill….

Posted in Aaarrgh, Life, News | No Comments »

Some Children Are Just Plain Evil

Thursday, November 19th, 2009

 A tragic story from my birth state.  Having lived in Mid-Missouri for the better part of four years, I always thought of Cole County as very safe, and a place where major crimes rarely occur.  I guess I was wrong.

Girl, 15, Charged as Adult in Murder

Police Say She Killed 9-Year-Old to ‘Know What It Felt Like’

By DAVID A. LIEB,
AP
 
 
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (Nov. 18) – Blessed with a Friday off school, 15-year-old Alyssa Bustamante dug two holes in the ground to be used as a grave, authorities said. For the next week, she attended classes, all the while plotting the right time for a murder, they said.
That time arrived the evening of Oct. 21, when Bustamante strangled 9-year-old neighbor Elizabeth Olten without provocation, cut the girl’s throat and stabbed her, prosecutors said. Why?
“Ultimately, she stated she wanted to know what it felt like,” Missouri State Highway Patrol Sgt. David Rice testified Wednesday during a court hearing over the slaying.
Rice, who interviewed Bustamante in the days after Elizabeth’s disappearance, said she confessed to investigators and led them to the fourth-grader’s well-concealed body in a wooded area near their neighborhood in St. Martins, a small town west of Jefferson City.
A Cole County judge ruled Wednesday that Bustamante, who has been held in Missouri’s juvenile justice system, should be tried as an adult. Hours later, the teen was indicted on adult charges of first-degree murder and armed criminal action for allegedly using a knife to kill Elizabeth. A judge later entered a not guilty plea on Bustamante’s behalf and referred her to the public defender’s office.
The court proceedings marked the first time that the suspect in Elizabeth’s death had been publicly identified since a two-day search for the girl by hundreds of volunteers. When they found Elizabeth’s body Oct. 23, authorities only said that a 15-year-old had led them to it and was in custody for the slaying.
Bustamante remained largely expressionless as she sat with her hands shackled around her waist in court Wednesday. She occasionally looked down beneath the brown bangs that covered her eyes and swallowed hard as a judge read the charges against her.
On one side of the courtroom sat her mother and grandmother, who has been Bustamante’s legal guardian for about half of her life. On the other side sat Elizabeth’s mother, relatives and friends, several of whom wore pink — Elizabeth’s favorite color.
Bustamante was ordered held without bond pending her trial. If convicted of first-degree murder, she would be sentenced to life in prison without parole.
Witnesses at Bustamante’s adult certification hearing described a girl who was bright yet depressed and clever in a sometimes sneaky sort of way. She ranked in roughly the top third of her class at Jefferson City High School, the principal said, and had been in no trouble at school or with the law.
Yet Bustamante had tried to commit suicide at age 13 and had been receiving mental health treatment for depression and cutting herself, said David Cook, the chief juvenile officer in Cole County. Once, she led her family to believe she was attending a local church event when she instead sneaked off to a concert in St. Louis, about two hours away, Cook said. On one or two other occasions, Bustamante spent the night in the woods without permission, he said.
After her arrest, Bustamante tried to cut herself with her own fingernails while being held in juvenile custody, said her appointed juvenile defense attorney Kurt Valentine.
He argued Bustamante should remain in the juvenile system, where she could potentially be rehabilitated before being set free by age 21. Valentine warned that Bustamante would either kill herself or be assaulted and killed by others if she were placed in an adult jail cell or prison.
“We are throwing away the child and we are signing a death sentence for Alyssa,” Valentine said. “She is not going to survive her time in the Cole County jail.”
Cole County Sheriff Greg White said later that Bustamante would be held at a different, undisclosed location.
Cook recommended Bustamante be tied as an adult. Cole County Circuit Judge Jon Beetem agreed, saying the killing was vicious and that the state had no adequate facilities or services to treat Bustamante if she remained in the juvenile system.
Bill Heberle, with the Missouri Division of Youth Services, testified that the state has no secure facilities with fences for female juveniles. Youths in Missouri’s juvenile system generally are housed in group settings and are not typically watched by staff 24 hours a day, he said.
 
Associated Press Writer Chris Blank contributed to this report.
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press.

A few comments about this.  First, we tend to have this fantasy view that small towns are safer than the big cities, that since everybody knows everybody, crime doesn’t happen.  Once again, we find out that in the typical, normal crime, the perpetrator and victim know each other, that the random Manson family or Ted Bundy type crimes are the exception, not the rule.  In other words, we should not let our guard down just because we know somebody.  Take for instance the Fort Hood slaughter.  Would a random stranger have even been allowed to get on the base with a weapon?  However, since the shooter was an insider, known and trusted, he wasn’t given the same level of scrutiny that a random stranger would have been given, and the results were deadly.

 
Second, we always assume that a minor is not capable of intentionally doing bad things, that somehow, always, when a child displays psychopathic behavior, that there is always some “reason” behind it.  Sometimes, the devil really did make them do it!  When this girl attempted suicide, more than likely they assigned a counselor to hear who listened to her sad tales of abuse and trauma, and attributed her attempted suicide to being victimized by a trusting, caring adult.  Maybe, just maybe, she was, well, nuts, and not rehabilitatable.  Maybe, just maybe, not every person can be saved.  I am not saying don’t try to save somebody; what I am saying is that if you put in a bona fide effort, and the same bad patterns keep repeating themselves, you just have to throw up your hands and walk away.  If this 15 year old girl had been allowed to kill herself, then an innocent 9 year old girl would still be alive.  Sometimes intervention does more harm than good.

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To Protect And Serve…Themselves!

Friday, November 13th, 2009

Entire police force in Hungarian town quits after winning the lottery

An entire police force has quit after winning more than £10 million in the lottery.

 

Published: 6:29PM BST 15 Oct 2009

The 15-strong squad in Budaors, Hungary, scooped the jackpot with their ticket on Tuesday and all resigned on the spot.

Police chiefs have scrambled back-up units to the region until more full-time officers can be recruited.

It was the sixth biggest win in Hungarian lottery history.

 

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Now That’s Some Treehouse!

Friday, November 13th, 2009

Four-story treehouse, discord rise in Worcester neighborhood
Structure ordered torn down by city


treehouse

Michael Chapman has until Nov. 2 to take down the treehouse he recently built in his yard, or face a fine of $300 a day. (Jim Collins/ Worcester Telegram & Gazette)

By David Abel Boston Globe Staff / October 20, 2009

WORCESTER – Spiraling around the old oak tree are more than a ton of pressure-treated lumber, some 500 lag screws and nuts, 1,000 feet of jute rope, and 48 feet of rebar.

Atop it all, about 50 feet in the air amid large, golden leaves, sits a copper squirrel fixed on a patina-covered weathervane.

The elaborately designed, four-platform treehouse cost Michael Chapman about $12,000 and just about every waking hour of the past three months. It was a work of love, a childhood dream come true, he said.

Now, after a city inspection and complaints from neighbors – one neighbor allegedly threatened to kill him – his lair in the sky must come down.

“It came out bigger and more conspicuous than I expected, and I’m saddened by the controversy,’’ said Chapman, 48, a botanist. “If I had done it over again, I would have tried to be more detailed in my pre-negotiations with my neighbors. But hindsight is 20-20.’’

When his neighbors in the large homes here on the West Side of Worcester began to hear the clatter of construction in his yard in August – the initial stage of what would become a series of spiral staircases, ladders, and catwalks – they watched with a mix of awe and dread.

Rudy Cepko, who lives next door, where the tree’s branches stretch over his property, didn’t recognize what was happening until Chapman and several of his friends began working on the second stage, a perch they call the “Pope’s Platform,’’ because it “would make a nice place to issue proclamations.’’

Cepko and others asked them to scale back the project, but his neighbor of about nine years refused, Cepko said.

At one point, the tension thickened so much that Cepko threatened to burn down the treehouse, with Chapman on it, Chapman said.

“I really feel unfortunate that things had to come to this,’’ Cepko said, noting the neighbors used to be friends. “We tried to offer him any type of compromise. It didn’t have to be so high. He wouldn’t listen.’’

Cepko and others complained to city officials that the treehouse was unsafe, that it threatened the tree, that it violated local zoning laws. Cepko said it had nothing to do with his property value and declined to comment on the alleged threats.

“He can say whatever he wants,’’ Cepko said. “If there was a death threat, the police should have been involved. It’s just really goofy.’’

Chapman said he didn’t want to discuss his conversations with neighbors. “All I’ll say is he threatened me with arson, and he threatened to kill me,’’ he said. “I don’t want to attack him.’’

But by that point the city had become involved.

After receiving complaints in September, officials from Worcester’s Department of Inspectional Services visited Chapman’s property and determined the treehouse violated city ordinances because it was higher than 15 feet and within 5 feet of the property line.

“The real issue was privacy,’’ said Joe Mikielian, commissioner of the city’s Department of Inspectional Services. “One neighbor was concerned about him going up with binoculars and seeing into other houses.’’

Mikielian said he worried that the treehouse would be “an attractive nuisance,’’ like a swimming pool without a fence. “It’s a danger to the neighborhood, and it could invite kids to hurt themselves,’’ he said.

So his department ordered Chapman to remove the tree house by Nov. 2. If he doesn’t, the city could fine him up to $300 a day.

Yesterday, Chapman took reporters on a tour of his creation, which is sturdy enough to support several adults at one time. As acorns rained down from the higher branches, Chapman said he will not appeal Mikielian’s order.

He compared the time that he has left with his treehouse – he did this for himself (he has no children) – to a story by the Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges, in which time suddenly slows as the protagonist faces a firing squad. Like the character in the story, he gets to complete his work of art.

“It’s the act of creation, not the ownership that matters,’’ he said. “I’m never truly happy unless I’m making something.’’

In recent days Chapman has added some finishing touches, including a wooden box to store books, special lounge chairs, and a heart-shaped plaque that reads “Heart of Oak.’’

“I have no regrets about doing this,’’ he said.

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Has He Ever Heard Of A Divorce?

Friday, November 13th, 2009

Sicilian prefers prison to house arrest with wife

Thu Oct 22, 2009 3:51pm EDT
PALERMO, Sicily (Reuters) – A Sicilian builder transferred from prison to house arrest tried to get himself locked up again to escape arguments with his wife at home, Italian media reported Thursday.

Santo Gambino, 30, did time for dumping hazardous waste before being moved to house arrest in Villabate, outside the Sicilian capital, Palermo, Italian news agencies reported.

Gambino went to the police station and asked to be put away again to avoid arguing with his wife, who accused him of failing to pay for the upkeep of their two children.

Police charged him with violating the conditions of his sentence and made him go home and patch things up with his wife.

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Can You Say….Oops?

Friday, November 13th, 2009

Bank Accidentally Sells Couple’s Home

Sarah Buduson
Reporter, KPHO.com

POSTED: 8:25 pm MST November 10, 2009
UPDATED: 10:21 am MST November 11, 2009

PHOENIX — Despite being up-to-date on their modified mortgage payments, a Valley couple found Chase foreclosing on their home.

 ”You work so hard. Put a lot of money down on your house. You pay your taxes. You pay your mortgage, and it’s all stolen from you,” said Jeff Zerner, the homeowner.

He and his wife, Yanthy, found out about the foreclosure when the new owner posted a notice on their door Nov. 4.

 “I get this notice that says you have five days to vacate the property,” he said. “So I called the number (on the notice) and I say, ‘Who are you?’ and they say, ‘We’re the legal owners of this house. It went up for foreclosure.”

Just days before, the Zerners thought their home was safe. They had finished their trial modification with Chase and were led to believe they would qualify for a permanent modification.

“We paid Chase several hundred dollars, which they accepted in good faith,” said Zerner. “I feel extremely ripped off.”

 Chase officials admit they made an error by selling the house.

They sent CBS 5 News a statement saying, “We apologize for the confusion over the modification actions and the parallel foreclosure steps Chase takes as a precaution. We have reached out to Ms. Zerner to discuss where we go from here.” 

 Loan modifications and foreclosures are parallel processes. In the Zerners case, the sides failed to communicate with each other to halt the foreclosure until it was too late.

Banks can buy back homes they’ve sold in foreclosure or rescind the sale. They can also pay to relocate a family to another home.

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The New “Community Policing”

Friday, November 13th, 2009
Police suggest they move from crime-ridden neighborhood, residents say

Thursday,  October 29, 2009 3:14 AM

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
Allen Carrel recently called police to tell them about the latest drug deal he watched go down in his South Side neighborhood. 

“Police say, ‘Well, why did you move here? Why don’t you move out if you don’t like it?’  ” said Carrel, who said he calls police at least once a week.

Others complain that they have heard the same.

“They tell us to move out of the neighborhood,” said Ellen Bowers, who also lives on the South Side. “We just want to clean our neighborhood up,” she said this week.

Carrel, Bowers and other neighbors are upset, and they are telling city officials about it at community meetings and at a recent City Council meeting.

James Ragland, aide to Columbus City Council member Charleta Tavares, said he has received more than 20 similar calls from residents from areas including the South Side, Linden and the King-Lincoln District.

“We don’t want to see a mass exodus of our best residents leaving the community because police are recommending (it),” Ragland said. “We don’t want our officers to be the tipping point.”

It’s a big enough issue that city lawyers discussed it with Police Chief Walter Distelzweig this week as they talked about what they were hearing about police, good and bad, in the community.

“If we find out something like that happens, we’ll look into it if we have the name of an officer,” said Sgt. Rich Weiner, a police spokesman who attended the meeting.

“Our mission is to serve the communities of Columbus and the citizens who live within. The solution is not for an officer to tell them to move out.”

City Attorney Richard C. Pfeiffer Jr. said even one officer suggesting someone move is one too many.

Tavares, who said she’s heard the complaints, said, “We don’t want our residents to feel their neighborhood isn’t worthy of living in.”

South Side leaders have brought up the issue at recent community meetings with Columbus City Councilman Andrew Ginther.

“It’s not acceptable or appropriate,” said Ginther, chairman of the council’s public safety committee. He said he has discussed the problem with Public Safety Director Mitchell Brown, and he thinks most officers want to work with residents.

Carrel has lived in the Ganthers Place neighborhood for seven years and leads the area block watch. He said he knows the police work hard and campaigned for the city income-tax increase approved in August.

“We just want the same respect as any other neighborhood,” he said.

Pfeiffer said he’s talked with both residents and police about improving communication.

“The fundamental issue I always express to police is, ‘Can you get out of your cruisers and talk to your neighbors?’ ” Pfeiffer said.

Jim Gilbert, president of Fraternal Order of Police Capital City Lodge No. 9, said officers become weary over time.

“It’s like the OK Corral out there,” he said.

“I know it’s very frustrating for officers on the street, we’re so overworked. We want citizens’ support.”

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Friday The 13th = Bad Luck

Friday, November 13th, 2009

Friday the 13th May Result in A Series of Unfortunate Events

Nov 12th 2009 6:42PM
By Digital City Staff

Friday the 13th is at the center of one of the most universal superstitions. Believing that bad luck can befall even the most unsuspecting of folks on this day, many people might not even leave their house.

Every year, we experience at least one Friday the 13th and this year, we’ve had three – the most you can have in a single year and a phenomenon that won’t happen again until 2015. Whether or not you believe the hype, we’ve made it through these days relatively unscathed.

But, with a little research, it’s easy to see that not every Friday the 13th has passed so easily. We found several unfortunate events – thirteen, in fact – which have surpassed on a Friday the 13th in pretty recent history.

With events, including a Hurricane, a horrible plane crash, the subject of several movies and books, and a few tragic deaths, this day hasn’t been lucky for a great many people. These thirteen unlucky events should be a warning to you: watch your step today and make sure you don’t meet up with any black cats or walk underneath any ladders – you’ll only make it worse for yourself.

These incidents may be the proof skeptics need to believe that Friday the 13th really isn’t the most lucky day for many of us. Or perhaps these are just coincidences? You’ll have to decide for yourself.

Check out this list of the 13 most unfortunate events to have taken place on a Friday the 13th:

1. Friday, October 13, 2006
Buffalo, N.Y. experienced an unusually early snow storm which virtually shut down when the metro area was covered in up to two feet of snow. The storm, which the Toronto Star called one of the worst snow storms in U.S. history, was nicknamed the “Friday the 13th Storm.” And some even referred to it as “The Arborgeddon Storm” or the “Columbus Day Massacre.”

The storm, which began on Thursday the 12th, resulted in the two snowiest days that Buffalo had seen in the 137 years that the National Weather Service had been operating. Not only did it snow many people in, it surprised the the town, which had barely done any preparations for winter storms. Schools remained closed for nearly ten days following the snow fall.

2. Friday, August 13, 2004
During what proved to be a very busy hurricane season, Hurricane Charley really packed a wallop compared to the other 2004 storms that came before and after him. It was on Friday the 13th when this Category 4 hurricane came ashore in Port Charlotte, Florida. And this happened less than a day after Tropical Storm Bonnie had stormed through Northern Florida.

Early predictions had the storm hitting Florida just north of Tampa but when it unexpectedly turned into Charlotte Harbor, it caught many residents off guard. The 150 mile per hour winds ransacked the coastal town, uprooting trees, tearing down traffic lights and destroying homes.

Charley paved its way northeast from the coast, tearing through several towns and by the time it reached the middle of the state, it still boasted winds of over 100 miles per hour.

When the disastrous tempest finally left Florida behind, it also left behind a death toll of ten people and over $15.4 billion in damages throughout the state. Floridians hit hardest spent years cleaning up the mess but the disaster was eclipsed a year later when Hurricane Katrina hit their Gulf Coast brethren in New Orleans, La.

3. Friday, May 13, 2005
The Andijan Massacre took place in Adijan, Uzbekistan on this Friday the 13th when troops fired into a crowd of protesters gathered in the central square to voice their anger over growing poverty and other concerns. Accounts of how the events went down are conflicting as the official government statement makes the event seem much more tame than what human rights advocates would have you think.

But what seems to be certain is that after a group of escaped, wrongly convicted prisoners took over a government building, a protest and riot ensued. By the evening troops were firing on the civilians in an area that may have been blocked off by the government. The final number of deaths is anywhere between 187 to 5,000 depending on who you talk to.

4. Friday, June 13, 1997
One of the worst fire tragedies in Indian history occurred on a Friday the 13th when the Uphaar Cinema in New Delhi caught fire during the showing of a patriotic Hindi movie. Upon discovering the fire, those in attendance panicked and caused a stampede which killed 59 people and injured at least 100 more.

The fire started when faulty electricity transformer burst and the flame spread through the parking lot before meeting the five-story building where the cinema was located. To add to the chaos, fire responders were delayed by traffic before they arrived and took well over an hour to put out the flames.

5. Friday, September 13, 1996
The death of Tupac Shakur, which took place on a Friday the 13th, is the result of a sordid story. Shakur, a successful rapper, was shot by a drive-by shooter as he rode in the passenger seat of Suge Knight’s car through the streets of Las Vegas on the night of September 7. Six days later, Shakur succumbed to his wounds and passed away.

Even after his death, Shakur remains an icon and even continues having success in the music industry. An Elvis-style legend has even evolved from the events of his death with some fans believing that the rapper faked his death and is actually still alive.

6. Friday, October 13, 1972
This Friday the 13th story has made such an impact that two movies have been inspired by the incident. The Stella Maris College rugby team was supposed to fly to Santiago, Chile on Thursday the 12th but due to poor conditions, the flight was grounded and the trip resumed the next afternoon on Friday the 13th.

Continuing weather problems forced the pilots to make an educated guess about descent into Chile. They clipped several mountains in the Andes and crashed in the snow covered slopes.

Initially, 27 passengers survived the crash. But as food started to run out and the freezing temperatures took their toll, those left struggled to stay alive. A search party, finding no trace of the plane, was called off eight days after the crash and the passengers realized that they needed to escape the mountains on their own.

They foraged for warm garments, searched for a way out and eventually had to make the decision to cannibalize their departed companions and classmates to keep from starving.

After 72 days in the mountains, two of the survivors found their way to civilization and told people who they were. They then led a rescue team back to their comrades still living in the wreckage of the plane. Only 16 of the original 45 passengers survived the entire ordeal.

7. Friday, March 13, 1992
Erzincan, Turkey was rocked on Friday the 13th by an earthquake which measured 6.8 on the richter scale. Erzincan is located on the North Anatolian Fault and has seen its share of seismic activity. The 1939 Erzincan Earthquake left nearly 39,000 people dead and caused flooding and other disasters as a result.

This, the last major earthquake to take place in the region, took the lives of 500 residents and injured many more. In addition, many of Turkey’s citizens were left homeless after this incident.

8. Friday, October 13, 1989
After a news report released information about United Airlines’ parent company botching a buyout deal for the price of $6.75 million on the morning of Friday the 13th, the stock market plunged to a frightening low for the 1980s. The Dow Jones fell 6.91 percent, the NASDAQ dropped 3.09 percent and the S&P plunged 6.12 percent.

Since 1989, several other stock market incidents have certainly dwarfed this particular mini-crash. But at the time, the drop seemed like a tragedy or even a disaster to investors of the 1980s.

9. Friday, February 13, 1981
More than two miles of Louisville, Kentucky roads were destroyed when sewer explosions woke up the entire town at 5:16 AM on Friday the 13th. Since it happened before most sane people were out and about in Old Louisville, no one was hurt or killed in the blasts but witnesses said it looked like a series of bombs exploding. Water lines were also severed, leaving residents without running water for weeks.

Caused by the ignition of hexane gases, the event exposed the fact that a local soybean processing plant had been illegally discharging the hexane which they used as a solvent to extract oil from the soybean. It was determined that a spark from a car caused the gases to ignite.

10. Friday, June 13, 1930
Sir Henry Segrave was warned not to go out on his boat on Friday the 13th but that didn’t keep him from trying to beat the water speed record – an achievement that would cost him his life. Born in Baltimore, Md., this speed freak was raised in Ireland and raced for the British. He flew planes, raced cars and drove motor boats. There was no form of travel that this daredevil didn’t attempt – except for maybe trains. But he was a skilled racer in many fields.

By the end of 1929, Segrave had broken the land speed record three times but decided to attempt the water speed record after a fellow racer died attempting to break his record. Segrave was a veteran motor boat racer. He raced against a multiple water speed record holder in Miami and won, an accomplishment which earned him his knighthood in 1929.

The unlucky day of his death, Segrave was still working on breaking the water speed record. He was driving his boat, the Miss England II, in England’s largest natural lake, Windermere, when he managed to break the record. But before he could learn how fast he’d gone, the boat hit a log and capsized, immediately killing the on-board mechanic and fatally injuring Segrave. Before he passed away in the hospital, he was informed that he’d broken the record. He died moments later.

11. Friday, January 13, 1939
Considered one of the worst natural bush fires in the world, the Black Friday Fires ravaged much of Victoria, Australia on Friday the 13th. The unlucky mix of exceedingly hot temperatures, dry conditions and strong winds spread a few small brush fires across nearly 5 million acres in the Down Under. Five major fires contributed to the overall destruction, the largest of these was found in the Victorian Alps area.

The incident is still looked on as one of the worst disasters to ever happen in Australia. Seventy-one people lost their lives and over 1,300 homes were completely destroyed along with entire towns. Some areas are still regrowing after the damage from so many years ago.

12. Friday, December 13, 1867
In what appears to have been a grand prison escape attempt, a gunpowder explosion targeted the exercise yard of Clerkenwell Goal, a prison outside of London, on Friday the 13th. The blast killed several bystanders including a few prison officials.

The Fenian Society was blamed for the incident which damaged the prison, originally built during the reign of King James 1. Before the incident, Clerkenwell was known as a pretty strict prison, enforcing penal labor. Around the time of the explosion, members of the Cato Street Conspiracy, which aimed to kill British cabinet members, were temporarily imprisoned at Clerkenwell.

13. Friday, November 13, 1863
After what would later be deemed an unfair trial, Josefa “Chipita” Rodriguez became the first and only woman to be legally hanged in Texas when she was executed on Friday the 13th. Convicted on circumstantial evidence, prosecutors never managed to definitively tie Rodriguez, who seemed to be a rather charitable inn keeper, to the axe murder and robbery of a trader named John Savage. In fact, some believe that the woman was really only protecting a man believed to be her illegitimate son.

Witnesses to her death claim that she may have even been buried alive. To this day, many believe that Chipita Rodriguez’s tortured ghost haunts the region where she was executed and some even suggest that her death resulted in a curse on the entire town which these days only amounts to a little over 300 residents (according to the 2000 Census).

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