Weird, Wild, and Wacky: Lovebird Edition Just in time for Thanksgiving - the perfect time for the latest edition of one of my favorite features: the Weird, Wild, and Wacky Daily Dose. And this time around, I've decided to focus on what I'm most thankful for: love. (Now before you think I've become too much of a sap, read on!) Enjoy… It didn't make the Guinness Book of World Records, but it deserves an honorable mention in my book. Last month, 106-year-old Pan Xiting of southeastern China married his 81-year-old sweetheart, Chen Adi. Red tape almost kept these lovebirds from wedded bliss. When asked to present their residence cards at the civil ceremony, neither could do so. Officials eventually gave in and helped them tie the knot anyway. Chen had taken care of Pan for eight years before Pan decided to make an honest woman out of her. And now that they're married, Pan says that they will "never separate from each other until death." Other lovebirds don't have the luxury of such "together time"… One of Italy's most famous bad guys, mobster Raffaele Cutolo, just became the proud papa of a beautiful baby girl. "What's so strange about that?" you're probably wondering. Plenty. Cutolo was in jail when he married his wife back in 1983 - and he's never been allowed to have conjugal visits. (Talk about torture…) Through the miracle of artificial insemination, Cutolo and his wife (whose name is Immacolata, if you can believe it) have been able to keep Cutolo's family name going (though some names are best left to the history books, if you ask me.) You know, it always boggles my mind when people are able to love the unlovable. This next story is no different. I've heard of people keeping pigs as pets before. I, for one, would prefer Porky to be on my dinner plate rather than my sofa, but that's just me… But Michelle Schmitz has taken this "pet pig" business to a whole new level. She's suing the pig's pet-sitter for animal abuse. The charge: The pet-sitter made her pig FAT. (Wait a minute… Aren't pigs supposed to be fat? When's the last time you saw a skinny pig? Isn't that an oxymoron?) Anyway, last February, Schmitz's coworker agreed to take care of little Alaina Templeton while Schmitz was recovering from ankle surgeries. Finally, nine months later, when Schmitz went to pick Alaina up, her 50-pound pork chop had blossomed to a hefty 150 pounds. Not only that, but as Alaina porked up, her neck had grown around her collar. Miss Piggy was forced to undergo a 4-1/2-hour surgery to get it removed. Schmitz, who claims that "that pig is my life," says she cried for three days when she saw how fat her pig was. Oh, and one more thing… The woman has a tattoo of the piglet's name. Now that's love. Cabin fever I don't know too many people who don't enjoy a good, hard blizzard now and then. I look at them as Mother Nature's way of saying, "Slow down!" Works like a charm, too. Moms and dads get to skip work, kids get to skip school, grocery stores sell lots milk, eggs, and toilet paper, and men get to play with big toys like snow plows. Even the power outages that often go hand-in-hand with blizzards have their own unexpected benefits: romantic candlelight, snuggling together to stay warm… Around the begging of the year, Denver, Colorado, experienced two back-to-back blizzards. Nine months later, Denver hospitals experienced a blizzard of their own - a baby boom. One hospital in particular reported a 20-percent increase in deliveries in the month of October. Some hospitals are even making blizzard baby T-shirts.
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