Four-year-old Noah of Brooklyn knows nautical nonsense when he sees it, so he went all-in on SpongeBob SquarePants Popsicles, ordering 918 of them from Amazon in April without his mom knowing. When 51 cases arrived at his aunt's home, his mom panicked: Jennifer Bryant is a social work graduate student at NYU and has two other boys, the Washington Post reported. She couldn't pay the $2,618 bill, and Amazon wouldn't take the frozen confections back. A family friend set up a GoFundMe page, raising more than $11,000, which Noah's mom said will go toward his education. Noah is on the autism spectrum, and his mom hopes to send him to a special school. Amazon is working with the family to donate to a private charity of their choice, and as for the treats? They've mostly melted.
Not a happy Mother's Day
You let your grown son, his girlfriend and their child move into your house, and what thanks do you get in return? For a 43-year-old Lone Rock, Wis., woman, "Happy Mother's Day" was expressed with a shock to the neck from a Taser wielded by her 22-year-old son, Andrew Peterson. According to the Smoking Gun, Peterson became upset on May 9 because he couldn't find his phone, so he stunned his mother, then left her home with Colleen Parker, 20, and their child. Peterson was arrested for the assault; Parker also was arrested for allegedly punching Peterson's mom in the face earlier in the week.
Government in action
Since 1989, Mauro Morandi, now 81, has been the caretaker of Budelli, an otherwise uninhabited island in the Mediterranean Sea off Sardinia. He stumbled into the job when his catamaran broke down near the island and he learned that its caretaker was getting ready to retire, the Guardian reported. Now known as Italy's Robinson Crusoe, Morandi lives in a former World War II shelter and keeps things tidy on the island, clearing paths and keeping beaches clean for day-trippers who visit. But ownership of the island has passed to La Maddalena national park authorities, who are evicting Morandi and turning the small isle into an environmental education destination. "I have given up the fight," Morandi said. "I'll be living in the outskirts of the main town [on neighboring island La Maddalena], so will just go there for shopping and the rest of the time keep myself to myself. ... I'll still see the sea."
Surgery with an accent
Angie Yen, 27, of Brisbane, Australia, had her tonsils removed on April 19, a simple surgery that went smoothly, News.com reported. But on April 28, as she got ready for work, she started singing in the shower and noticed something unusual about her voice. "I was singing in a different sound and also talking words in a funny accent," Yen said. She called a friend, who agreed that her accent suddenly sounded Irish and told her about FAS, foreign accent syndrome. Yen went to the hospital, but doctors told her to go home and see if the new accent would disappear in a few days. Nearly two weeks later, the brogue remains, and Yen is scheduled for an MRI and a visit with a neurologist. "I'm very lucky to have very supportive friends and family," she said. "If they find something, hopefully there is a cure or treatment for it."
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