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UPI NewsTrack Quirks in the News

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Woman, 22, auctioning virginity

NEW YORK, Nov. 3 (UPI) -- A 22-year-old woman who is auctioning off her virginity told "The Tyra Banks Show" in New York that she is 100 percent serious about the auction.

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Natalie Dylan said during an interview scheduled to air Monday that she "wanted to study the dichotomous nature between virginity and prostitution. There's really been so few case studies of it ... I stumbled upon this article of a Peruvian woman who wanted to sell her virginity and she was offered and exorbitant amount of cash... $1.5 million."

Dylan, who said she wants to pursue a career as a sex therapist, said many people have misconceptions about virginity.

"I think people misconstrue virginity with being prudes. I'm definitely not; I'm very open-minded to what they want to do ... I think this is about being pro-choice with your body," she said.

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The college graduate said she has received bids ranging from $1 million to $3.8 million from more than 5,000 men.

"It's not like an eBay auction... I don't have to take the highest bidder. I'm taking time to get to know the guys. We contact each other back and forth," she said. "I completely plan on following through with this act."


New ring advertises single status

MONTREAL, Nov. 3 (UPI) -- A French-Canadian entrepreneur near Montreal is marketing specially designed rings that advertise the wearer is single and approachable.

Jean Thibodeau, 43, told The Gazette newspaper in Montreal the ring makes sense in Quebec's society, where marriage is becoming more scarce in favor of common-law relationships.

Thibodeau's rings, made in Hong Kong, are stainless-steel adorned with a metallic-blue paint stripe, the newspaper said. They sell for $39.95 in 12 stores in northern Montreal suburbs. Thibodeau said he plans on gradual expansion further into the province.

A saleswoman at one of the stores selling the rings said about three rings are sold each day, mostly to women.

Quebec's statistical agency backs up Thibodeau's observation on marriage -- only one quarter of men and a third of women can expect to marry in their lifetime in the province, down from near nine in 10 men and women in 1966.

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The report didn't specify on which, if any particular finger the ring is worn.


Edmund Hillary's family upset by ad

WELLINGTON, New Zealand, Nov. 3 (UPI) -- A New Zealand pizza chain has angered the family of Sir Edmund Hillary with an advertisement featuring the mountain climber's skeletal remains dancing.

Family members of Hillary, who died in January at the age of 88, said Hell Pizza's advertisement on its Web site, which features the skeleton of the first man to scale Mt. Everest dancing to Michael Jackson's "Thriller" alongside actor Heath Ledger and the Queen Mother, The Telegraph reported Monday.

Hillary's son, Peter, described the ad, which went up on the Web site two days before Halloween and was taken down Monday, as "a little grotesque."

"I don't think it's funny and I'm not very impressed," he said. "It is early days and it's still pretty raw. It's extremely poor taste really."

"The reality is they've put it on the Internet. It is now uncontrollable. The damage is done," Peter Hillary said.


Diabetic test taker says security paranoid

LOWELL, Mass., Nov. 3 (UPI) -- A diabetic woman said she was nearly prevented from taking a graduate school entrance exam in Lowell, Mass., when her insulin pump was mistaken for an iPod.

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Sara Kingsley, 24, said she arrived to take the standardized Graduate Record Examination last month but ran into trouble when the proctor told her to remove her insulin pump, the Boston Globe reported Monday.

"He was convinced it was an iPod," Kingsley said. "I never thought anyone would question my insulin pump. People don't question if you have glasses or a hearing aid. It was a really humiliating experience for me."

She said she was eventually allowed to take the test, but she was not allowed to bring a bottle of cranberry juice and a blood-sugar monitoring kit to keep her blood sugar levels stable.

Kingsley said she reported the proctor to the company that administered the exam but she has not yet been assigned a case number, which is required to file a formal complaint.

The non-profit National Center for Fair & Open Testing, an organization critical of standardized testing, said the incident highlights the obsession with security that could have put a human life in danger.

"The concern about security in these exams is understandable... but they almost fetishize security beyond the realm of rationality," said Robert Schaeffer, public education director for the advocacy group.

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