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Trivia Quizzes

Fake-or-Fact Friday: Random News Edition

March 28, 2014

Two of these news items really happened. One of them only happened…in our minds. Can you tell which is the fake? The answer is below.

A.

Jerome Brittleman, 78, was attempting to retrieve a dollar bill that he’d spotted stuck in a segment of the walkway on an overpass in suburban Pittsburgh. The overpass was under construction, however, and Brittleman lost his footing and nearly fell off the 25-foot-high bridge. Brittleman, who told WTAE news that he weighs about 135 pounds, “only five pounds less than I did when I graduated high school,” thought he was lucky when his leather belt got caught in a piece of rebar that was jutting from one of the concrete supports. But he soon realized that he couldn’t lift himself back up to the bridge, and that traffic neither on nor under the overpass could see him. He was finally rescued when crews arrived to work Monday morning, 18 hours later. He was treated for exposure and dehydration, and is back home with his wife, Connie. Brittleman still wasn’t able to grab the dollar bill…but the construction crew retrieved it for him.

B.

A couple who collected more than $165,000 in public assistance from 2005 to 2012 were found to be living on a $1.2 million yacht in Florida are being sought on fraud charges. Colin Chisholm had been the CEO of a satellite TV and broadband services company and his wife, Andrea, sold and bred championship dogs. The couple claimed to be living in Minnesota, and collected the state assistance while they made deposits of more than $2.6 million into bank accounts that went unreported on their welfare applications.

C.

A restaurant in the Indian city of Ahmadabad offers a special setting to its diners by allowing the customers to enjoy their meal in the company of the dead. The restaurant was built atop a former cemetery, and rather than rip the graves out, the owner decided to incorporate them into the décor. “The graveyard brings good luck,” said the restaurateur of The New Lucky Restaurant. “Our business has been flourishing because of these graves. It gives people a unique experience.” The owner says he has no idea who the dozen graves belong to, but they are now sealed off by iron grills and are covered with cloth, decorated with fresh flowers and prayed over every day before the restaurant opens.

Want more fakes? Check out Uncle John’s Fake Facts. (Really!)