How does a chain of arts and crafts chain become embroiled in an international artefact smuggling conspiracy? Can a court actually decide if being gay is a sin? And what crimes can you commit with a watermelon? These are all questions that will be answered in this edition of Weird and Wacky Wednesday.
If you’re curious to find the solutions to these mysteries, follow the jump.
Raiders of the Lost Arts and Crafts Store
Federal prosecutors in the US are seeking the return of a rare, 3,500-year-old cuneiform tablet from a museum owned by Hobby Lobby – a corporation that owns a chain of arts and crafts stores. The ancient clay tablet contains a dream sequence from the epic of Gilgamesh, one of the world’s oldest known works of literature and is known as the Gilgamesh Dream Tablet – no, not that type of dream tablet.
It originated in the area of modern-day Iraq and is believed to have ended up in the United States illegally. It was sold by an international auction house to Hobby Lobby which put it on display at its Museum of the Bible in Washington D.C.
It is alleged an antiquities dealer sold the tablet with a false provenance letter and Hobby Lobby is cooperating with the investigation. But still, an arts and crafts retailer involved in international black market artefact dealing is not a sentence you read every day. It sounds like the plot of an abandoned Indiana Jones sequel.
Sue the gay away
There are frivolous lawsuits and then there are lawsuits that don’t stand a snowball’s chance in hell. Sadly, not only is this particular case a huge waste of time for all involved, it’s also about as homophobic as you can get.
Sylvia Driskell, is a 66-year-old woman from Auburn, Nebraska. She sounds like she’s a sweet little old lady, right? Wrong. Sylvia, acting as her own lawyer, filed a lawsuit called Driskell v Homosexuals. That’s right, she’s suing every single homosexual person.
She is asking the District Court of Omaha to determine whether being gay is a sin. I truly feel for the judge who has to read her entire handwritten, seven-page petition
Out of their rinds
Thanks to Covid-19, masks are really in right now. Why not take some inspiration from this story and try out a watermelon mask?
Two young men stole alcohol from a Virginia store wearing hollowed-out watermelons on their heads. With cut-out eye holes and everything.
The fruit-fedora-wearing duo even posed for a photograph before entering the store where CCTV footage caught them in the act.
Police have only charged one person Justin Rogers, 20, so far. Mr. Rogers faces larceny, underage possession of alcohol, and wearing a mask while committing larceny charges.
