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April 15, 2001

WHAT'S MY MOTIVATION? A 31-year-old-woman, posing as a teenager, completed three years at Evergreen High School in Vancouver, Wash., before being arrested for defrauding the state of education funds to which she was not entitled. Her attorney says she should have a mental evaluation. The woman participated fully in student life, playing on the tennis team and even attending the senior prom. 
And, though her everyday life was apparently a consummate acting job, she almost failed drama.

OH, THAT EXPLAINS IT: Customs officials at Bogota's international airport found about $1 million in U.S. currency in the baggage of a Colombian family arriving from Spain. It is illegal to bring large sums of money into the country as people often use it to buy large amounts of cocaine. Family members said that a vision of the Virgin Mary appeared and made the money mysteriously appear in their luggage. 
Authorities did not believe them.

THE DREAM DIDN'T MENTION THAT: Melvine Miller won $22 million in the Illinois lottery in 1993 with numbers she said came to her in a dream 10 years earlier. She was seeing Michael Pierson when she hit the jackpot, and when they broke up in 1997, he took her to court to claim a share of the proceedings. While the jury was deliberating, the two agreed to a settlement, granting the ex-boyfriend some of the money. 
Jury members later revealed that they were about to rule against him and award the woman all of the money.

A SPRING IN HER STEP, A HOLE IN HER HEAD: Two New Age adherents in Utah drilled holes in a woman's head in the belief that this would restore her childhood buoyancy. The woman came all the way from England to have the procedure done. She survived. There is no word on the state of her buoyancy.
 The men pleaded guilty to practicing medicine without a license.

GIVE HER AN INCH, AND ...: A woman did some shopping at a Pleasanton, Calif., department store that was giving away a free ham to any customer who bought $50 worth of merchandise, and tried to claim one even though she had spent only $48. The manager decided to give her a ham anyway, but, instead of being grateful, the woman demanded he give her several more free hams because of money she had spent there on previous occasions. Police said she went ballistic when the manager refused and asked her to leave, ramming him with her shopping cart. 
Another store employee and a cop were also injured trying to subdue her.

Mike Pingree writes another Looking Glass column in the Boston Sunday Herald. You can read it by clicking here:
http://www.bostonherald.com/news/columnists.html

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