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Well, folks, I was preparing to post a serious entry, one that was truly destined for the annals of blogdom. It would have been so full of pith, prose and deep insights as to literally bring tears to your eyes; to make the very blogsphere sit up and take notice. Even Seth Godin himself would have called to congratulate me on my vast intellect, and invite me to join him on the A-list…

But then I checked my calendar and lo and behold! It’s time to take a break.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, it’s that time of the month! The time has come for another exciting edition of… OOB!

This Never Happens to Me Dept.

Thanks to Bad Language for relaying this story about a Russian who deposited 2,000 rubles at an ATM, and got credited for 20,006,699 rubles (about $7 million dollars)! Alas, despite the picture, without real proof this is probably an urban legend. Fun thought, though.

If you’re really interested in something different, put EnglishRussia into your blog aggregator for a continuous stream of entertaining stories, photos, and random odds and ends from Russia, for instance (to pick one at random) the bride who wore a wedding dress made of underwear.

Getting Nailed Dept.

Not long ago I posted about how to get rich. Would you settle for being famous instead? (They don’t necessarily go hand-in-hand, you know.) The way to do it is to say or accomplish something that is at least relatively unique.

Now an Albanian artist has made his mark on the world by creating an 8 square meter portrait of Leonardo da Vinci, executed entirely in industrial nails. If you want to see it in person, though, you’ll have to travel to the International Center of Culture in Tirana, Albania. (Go ahead, tell ‘em Bob sent you.)

One odd thing, though - if you examine the picture at right, Leo does seem to resemble the artist…

The Eyes Have It Dept.

Notwithstanding the obligatory “Big Brother” comments, New Scientist reports that police in the UK are placing posters featuring a large set of eyes on walls all over town in order to reduce crime. The logo: “We’ve got our eyes on criminals.” It’s based on an earlier experiment that found people paid three times as much in an unsupervised coffee room when they were being watched by a pair of eyes on a poster.

OK, let’s see if we can prove it. Focus on the eyes… take out your checkbook… make the check out to…

I’m Not Tall, I’m “Vertically-Enhanced” Dept.

So it turns out taller people definitely have an advantage over the, shall we say, ‘vertically challenged’. A news story from the Houston Chronicle points to research by two Princeton economists who say “Taller people earn more because they are smarter.”

That would explain why some guy 7 feet tall can make millions playing basketball, while at 6 feet 1 inch tall, I’m barely tall enough to scrape by. Now where did I put those lifts?

And The OOB Award Goes To…

Now here’s a proposed solution to crime I bet no one else has thought of! In an effort to convince their men to “give up their guns”, the wives/girlfriends of gang members in Bogota, Columbia, plan to withhold sex from them until they do. Story here.

This, my friends, is what OOB is all about! When old solutions simply don’t work anymore, it’s time to break out of the box and come up with new strategies. Good one, ladies!

So long for now. Stay tuned until next month for your next installment of… OOB!

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