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Dr Richard Batista, a prominent Long Island US vascular surgeon and father oof three, gave his wife Dawnell one of his kidneys in 2001 to save her life from renal failure. Four years later when they split up, he demanded either return of the kidney or payment of $1.5m. He accused her of having an affair, throwing him out of their house and denying him contact with the children; she alleged domestic violence and infidelity on his part.
The Nassau County Supreme Court rejected his claim, ruling that the kidney had been a gift. Further, the kidney was not part of “marital property” in family law property proceedings and his claim could expose him to criminal prosecution in that in the US organs may not be bought or sold, or exchanged for anything of value.
He obtained neither the kidney nor compensation.
Dr Richard Batista and his wife Dawnella on their wedding day in 1990
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Whilst on the topic of body parts . . .
In 2005 Anna Ayala was eating a bowl of chili at a Wendy’s restaurant in San Jose, California when she allegedly found a severed human figure therein. She sued Wendy’s for emotional distress.
Investigations by the Medical Examiner and the police established that:
- The finger had not come from any Wendy’s employees.
- Nor had it come from any suppliers.
- The finger was not consistent with having been cooked in chili at 170 degrees Fahrenheit for 3 hours.
- She had previously filed numerous lawsuits against various businesses.
The finger was traced to a co-worker of her husband who had lost it in a work accident and gave it to the couple to settle a $100 bet.
She was charged with conspiracy to file a false insurance claim and attempt grand theft, as well as fraud in respect oof another matter, to which she pleaded guilty to all. Hubby pleaded guilty to the conspiracy and grand theft charges, as well as other non-related matters. On appeal her sentence was reduced to 4 years’ jail and she was released on parole after 3 years. She had also been ordered to pay $21m compensation to Wendy’s. Hubby received a 12 year sentence.
Wendy’s lost $30m as a result of the fraudulent claim and revenue was down 50%, impacting employees and their hours.
Wendy’s banned her from all Wendy’s outlets for life.
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Queen Victoria (1819 – 1901) never found much pleasure in motherhood, describing her children as “ugly”, “nasty” and “frog-like”. When her daughter Vicky told her of her own pregnancy, Victoria replied that she was “dreadfully upset” by the “horrid news”. She hated the sight of pregnant women and described them as “quite disgusting”. She also refused to breastfeed, which she thought “animalistic” and only suited for women of low social class.
Her marriage to Albert (1819 – 1861) produced 9 children, 5 girls and 4 boys, with 17 years between the oldest and youngest. As her children got older, she developed a warm relationship with them.
Queen Victoria (centre), Albbert and their 9 children.
Part of her dislike of motherhood when her children were young may have been due to her own isolationist, distant and cold upbringing, but it has also been theorised that Victoria, a very sensual woman, may have been resentful at the lack of physical relations with Albert as a result of her pregnancies. Thinking at the time was that sex should be avoided during pregnancy, from the time of first awareness to one moth after birth. After from remaining out of Albert’s bed for the better part of a year, the cycle would be repeated with each pregnancy. In the first 60 months of her marriage she was pregnant or recovering from pregnancy for all but 16.
Albert died aged 42, she was a single mother of 9 children thereafter.
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Admiral Charles Bereford (1846 - 1919), later Lord Charles Beresford, was a British admiral and Member of Parliament, considered by many to be the personification of John Bull, an image supported by his trademark accompaniment, a bulldog.
Beresford had a full back tattoo of a hunting scene with horses and hounds pursuing from his shoulders down a fox which was disappearing into Beresford’s cleft of his buttocks, only the bushy tail being visible.
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Fulgurites, commonly called ‘fossilised lightning’, are tubes or clumps of fused sand, soil and other sediments formed when lightning hits the ground. An ancient fulgurite has revealed that grasses and shrubs grew in the Sahara Desert about 15,000 years ago.
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On April 3, 1973, Martin Cooper, Motorola’s General Manager, made the first mobile telephone call from a phone the size of a brick. He made the call from a sidewalk on Sixth Avenue in Manhattan to taunt their rival AT&T, saying to Joel Engel, head of AT&T-owned Bell Labs: “I’m calling you on a cell phone, but a real cell phone, a personal, handheld, portable cell phone.” Cell phones would not be available for the average consumer for another decade.
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The Hellespont, also known as the Strait of Galiipoli, is a waterway in Northern Turkey that forms part of the continental boundary between Asia and Europe. Today it is known as the Dardanelles and was the scene of fierce battles in WW1 during the Gallipoli campaign. At about 5 kilometres in width, it is one of the world’s narrowest straits used for international navigation.
In Greek mythology, Hero and Leander were star-crossed lovers who lived on opposite sides of the Hellespont. Leander would swim the Hellespont every night to be with Hero, guided by a torch held by her, and then swim back the following morning. One night the weather was wild and wind and Leander’s torch was extinguished. Leander drowned in the rough, dark choppy waters. His body washed ashore to Hero’s tower in Sestos and Hero, seeing his lifeless body, threw herself from the tower to her death in grief.
Inspired by the above story, the poet Lord Byron became the first person to swim the strait. Born with a club foot causing him to walk with a limp, he found freedom in water and was an excellent open water swimmer. He completed the swim on May 3, 1810 and, in a letter to his mother, wrote “I plume myself on this achievement more than I could possibly do on any kind of glory, political, poetical or rhetorical.”
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There is a company called Eternal Reefs which offers a burial at sea with a difference. It mixes the cremated remains of a person with concrete to create a "pearl" onto which loved ones can etch personal messages, handprints, or (environmentally friendly) mementos. The pearl is then encased in a "reef ball" that is dropped into the sea, where it provides a new habitat for fish and other sea life, helping encourage a vibrant ecosystem.
Visit the company’s website at:
Reef Ball
There is even a memorial site for veterans, called Arlington of the Sea.
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