A woman who turned to eBay to auction off her father's ghost asked buyers to show some restraint as bidding reached the US$14,000-mark over the weekend in a media-driven frenzy.
"I can't believe this went so far. Please keep the bidding at a minimum," said Mary Anderson in a posting on the online auction site Sunday.
Anderson, who hails from Hobart, Indiana, said the unexpected attention generated by her whimsical eBay sale had "left her a nervous wreck," and that she had cancelled some of the more "outrageous bids."
She reiterated that the purpose of the exercise was simply to reassure her five year-old-son who was uneasy about living in a house that he felt was haunted by his "mean" grandfather.
By way of explanation, Anderson said that her father had died of cancer at home, and towards the end had occasionally become irritated with his young grandson and had tapped him with his walking cane.
"It didn't hurt my son, but it hurt his feelings," Anderson wrote.
"I promise you he's not a meanie like my son thinks, but it's hard to tell that to a five-year-old when all he remembers is the bad things. My dad was the sweetest most caring man you'd ever meet."
To convince her son that the ghost had indeed gone, Anderson decided to offer her father's walking cane along with his ghost for sale on eBay -- with free shipping.
And she requested that the winning bidder write her son a letter after getting delivery of the cane to let the youngster know that both buyer and ghost were "getting along great."
The quirky auction entry, which ran under the headline "This isn't a joke," was picked up by the US media, spawning copycat eBay auctions, and driving the bidding up rapidly.
With just three hours left to run on the clock Monday, the highest bid was just shy of US$15,000 dollars, according to the eBay website.
Last month, a woman from Florida sold a 10-year-old grilled cheese sandwich that she claimed bore the image of the Virgin Mary for US$28,000.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of
A prominent Christian leader has allegedly been stabbed at the altar during a Mass yesterday in southwest Sydney. Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel was saying Mass at Christ The Good Shepherd Church in Wakeley just after 7pm when a man approached him at the altar and allegedly stabbed toward his head multiple times. A live stream of the Mass shows the congregation swarm forward toward Emmanuel before it was cut off. The church leader gained prominence during the COVID-19 pandemic, amassing a large online following, Officers attached to Fairfield City police area command attended a location on Welcome Street, Wakeley following reports a number