‘Buy away’: Michelle at book-signing
Michelle Obama on Tuesday returned to the business of selling her first book, and she started by telling scores of people waiting in line at a popular bookstore to “buy away” because Mother’s Day is coming. “It’s a great gift,” she said of American Grown: The Story of the White House Kitchen Garden and Gardens Across America.
The book was published about a year ago in late May, and the first lady did just one book-signing event in Washington about two weeks afterward. She was, at the time, taking part in an even bigger sales job: Campaigning around the country to help President Barack Obama win a second term.
“If you recall, when the book came out we were in the middle of this campaign, or something or other,” she joked Tuesday. “So we were a little busy.” With the election over and a second term in the history books, the First lady ventured a few miles north of the White House to the Politics and Prose bookstore on a rainy morning to plug the fruit of her first turn as a best-selling author.
More than 175,000 copies have been printed, according to Crown Publishers, which does not release sales figures.
The first lady said she wrote the 271-page book for a bumper crop of reasons: To tell the story of her White House garden on the South lawn, to spread the word about the history of community gardening in the United States and to start a conversation about childhood obesity in the US. “So all of that is part of this book, and it’s trying to do a little bit of everything,” she said. (AP)
Man uses spoon to escape jail
Oleg Topalov was being held on charges of double murder and arms trafficking when he became the fourth man in two decades to escape the maximum-security Matrosskaya Tishina prison in Moscow.
Authorities say Topalov, 33, could only have used a spoon to dig the hole in the ceiling of his cell, through which he made it to the roof. From there, Topalov was able to escape over the main fence. Investigators have accused prison staff of a “dishonest or careless attitude to their work that was made use of by the prisoner Topalov,” reports Sky News.
Topalov had been held since October 2011 and his case was sent to court last month, the Investigative Committee said in a statement. (UPI)
Early human beings dined on antelope brains
According to a recent article from Science News, early humans enjoyed dining on antelope brains. The findings came from recently discovered fossils in Kenya.
Experts believe the “hominids” were trying to “add a side of fatty, nutrient-rich brain tissue to their diets.” Research cited in Science News argues that human scavengers likely waited for big cats to feed on the carcasses before hammering at the skulls to access the brain tissue.
Newser writes that “this nutrient-rich brain tissue may have helped homo erectus support larger bodies, bigger brains, and travel longer distances.” (Yahoo News)
Washingtongraduate wears wedding gown under robe
With friends and family already gathered for her graduation from Washington State University, Cassie Dotts thought it would be a good time for another ceremony — her wedding.
She married University of Idaho fisheries science graduate Ben Ho in a ceremony one recent day in Moscow, Idaho. Then she received her doctorate in veterinary medicine in the next day’s WSU graduation in Pullman, Washington.
The Moscow-Pullman Daily News reports that Dotts wore her cap and gown over her wedding dress for people who wanted to see her as both a graduate and newlywed.
The couple plans to move to Dotts’ native Nevada where she plans to work as a veterinarian in las Vegas. (AP)
Economy claims Charles’ veg shop
Britain’s weak economy has taken its toll on the nation’s poshest greengrocer with Prince Charles forced to close his organic vegetable store, citing falling trade and rising prices.
Prince Charles, the heir to the throne and a champion of the environment, opened a store near to his country home Highgrove in Gloucestershire, south-west England, about eight years ago after converting his estate to organic farming in 1986.
The store, The Veg Shed, sold organic vegetables and fruit freshly grown on the estate’s Duchy Home Farm and became known for selling edible but oddly shaped organic produce that would normally be rejected by supermarkets.
But a spokeswoman for the prince said the store had closed after it failed to make a profit as it was no longer financially viable. The produce was invariably more expensive than at local supermarkets. (Reuters)