The Wienermobile goes to the prom, and more

last updated 8 January 2015

The Wienermobile goes to the prom

A teenager badly injured in a motorcycle accident recovered from his injuries in time to fulfill his dream of traveling to his senior prom in an Oscar Mayer Wienermobile. Ben Ross of Dallas was left clinging to life after he was dragged beneath the wheels of a truck in March. His mother remembered her 17-year-old son joking about pulling up to his prom in the distinctive hot-dog-shaped vehicle, and set about making his dream a reality as he lay on his hospital bed. Oscar Mayer helped out, and Ben and his girlfriend, Molly, took one of the company’s seven Wienermobiles to prom last week.

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A legally blind woman overcame her disability to cross the finish line first in a Cincinnati marathon last week. Amy McDonaugh, a 34-year-old mother of three from Irmo, S.C., is completely blind in her right eye and has severely impaired vision in her left. But she fought off 1,775 competitors to win the Flying Pig Marathon. “My mom encouraged me to begin running when I was little,” said McDonough, who was running only her fourth marathon. “Because of my eyesight I could never play sports, but I could do this.”

Deck chairs to the rescue

Somali pirates who tried to storm a luxury cruise ship were sent packing by a group of retired British and German tourists wielding deck chairs. When the armed pirates pulled up to the ship off the coast of Somalia, the elderly passengers picked up whatever deck furniture they could find to repel the invaders. The pirates peppered the boat with machine-gun fire, but were eventually forced to retreat. “They were trying to scare us off,” said 65-year-old John Jeffrey, who was injured in the attack. “But we stood our ground and continued throwing deck chairs.”