A $23,148,855,308,184,500 mistake
A New Hampshire man became “very, very panicked” when his bank-card statement stated he’d been charged $23,148,855,308,184,500 for a tank of gas and a pack of cigarettes. Josh Muszynski, 22, says he fretted how the multi-quadrillion-dollar debt—the result of a computer programming glitch—would affect him and his descendants, given that the sum exceeds the GDP of every nation on Earth. “It is a lot of money,” said Muszynski, explaining his panic. “Something I could never, ever afford to pay back.”
Renée Zellweger’s bootie call
Visitors to Renée Zellweger’s New York apartment must not only remove their shoes, but then encase their stockinged feet in hospital-issue paper booties. The 40-year-old actress is a germophobe, a friend tells Star, and believes that even the insides of people’s shoes “are frequently contaminated with dirt and dangerous bacteria.” The booties-only policy makes her visitors laugh, says the friend, especially “when they go sliding around on her slippery floors.”
Pet terrier learns how to read
A New York animal trainer says she has trained her dog to read. Lyssa Rosenberg says a friend bet her she couldn’t teach Willow, her terrier, to decipher written words, but after six weeks of training, Willow will now roll over when shown the word “Bang,” extend her paw to “Wave,” and respond to other written commands. The dog isn’t limited to her owner’s handwriting, and can also read words printed out by a computer. “She’s an unbelievably quick learner,” Rosenberg says.
