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We admire people who have can-do, elbow-grease-type attitudes. If something's broke, why not fix it? Especially badly-damaged artwork. How hard can it be to just pick up a paintbrush and fix a fresco? Well, as it turns out — and as an elderly Spanish woman learned recently: pretty hard.
A couple of weeks ago, the Centro de Estudios Borjanos in Borja, Spain, received a donation from the granddaughter of 19th-century painter Elías García Martínez. At the time, the Centro knew of only one painting by Martínez in Borja — Ecce Homo, a fresco on the walls of the church of Santuario de Misericordia.
That's it above. The leftmost image is how the painting looked two years ago; the middle image is how it looked in July, when it was photographed for a catalog of regional religious art. The image on right is how it looked when the Centro went to check it out on August 6th after receiving the donation. Hmm.
The restored version is apparently the work of an octogenarian neighbor of the church, who, noticing the damage to the painting, took it upon herself to restore the painting "with good intentions" but "without asking permission," as culture councillor Juan Maria de Ojeda put it. It became clear to the amateur restorer — quickly, one imagines — that "she had gotten out of hand," and she confessed to local authorities.
You love your girlfriend. You want to propose. But how can you be sure that she really loves you? One extreme way to find out (that we don't recommend): Fake your own death in front of the girlfriend and then see if she is suitably devastated by your demise.
Bold? Yes. Illegal? Maybe. Did it actually happen and did she really say "yes"? Yep and yep.
Florida man dies after winning roach-eating contest
A 32-year-old man downed dozens of roaches and worms to win a python at a Florida reptile store, then collapsed and died outside minutes later.
Edward Archbold was among 20 to 30 contestants participating in Friday night's "Midnight Madness" event at Ben Siegel Reptiles in Deerfield Beach, authorities said.
The participants' goal: consume as many insects and worms as they could to take home a $850 python.
