DAVID MIRHADI Star-Tribune staff writer | Posted: Sunday, February 17, 2008 12:00 am
They're called fortune cookies, after all.
For that's what Monty McCarrick scored after cracking open a fortune cookie in Powell three years ago. The message inside the sweet treat gave him a series of numbers.
Feeling lucky, McCarrick played the numbers in a Powerball lottery when the over-the-road trucker decided to stop in Iowa and try his luck.
The Powell Tribune reported in its Valentine's Day edition of the luck churned by McCarrick, whose story has caught the eye of a New York Times writer who penned his story in her book, "The Fortune Cookie Chronicles," which discusses America's fascination with Chinese food and especially fortune cookies.
McCarrick's excerpt is in the March 2008 edition of Reader's Digest magazine.
McCarrick said he's stayed grounded despite scoring a $100,000 payday.
"I did pay our bills and I bought the wife a brand new truck," he told the paper.
Shortly thereafter, McCarrick's luck improved again, when he scored a $4,000 jackpot in Las Vegas.
Luck has kept McCarrick alive, too. An accident with a cow just over a year ago nearly cost him his life. He doesn't drive truck anymore, but he's around to tell tales of his life.
"You've got to be lucky," he told the paper.
Rare lizard skulks Uinta County
A lizard normally found 2,000 miles away in the northeastern United States somehow found its way to the Bridger Valley.
How he got there is even more a mystery.
Seems Rod Orullian was sucking water from a nearby pond when he unwittingly sucked up the salamander, where it swam in a full water tank for a few days, the Bridger Valley Pioneer reported in its Feb. 8 edition.
For two months they investigated the origins of the critter they named "Puppy" simply because they thought it was a mud puppy. Thing is, the paper noted, this salamander never evolved past the larvae stage. You don't see them in these parts either.
The tiny critter now has a home a little farther away from its habitual home, at an aquarium in Utah, the paper reported.
A light in the darkness
Imagine you're Jay Francis. His job is important as a final rite for people buried at Mt. Pisgah Cemetery in Gillette.
His job? In winter, it means opening a propane burner at the cemetery to thaw the ground at potential grave sites.
In Wyoming, it seems like that might be a job that occurs with some frequency, considering that the snow and frost underneath the Gillette cemetery can be as much as two feet thick.
"It's like baking bread," Francis told the Gillette News-Record for its Feb. 12 edition. "You got to stay at it and make sure the oven's on."
It's a solitary, maybe even a bit macabre job, but one Francis says he's honored to have.
"These guys never complain," Francis says of the tombstones that seemingly watch his every move.
Don't touch that microwave
Sometimes, it's impossible to figure out someone's motives. The Gillette News-Record reported in its Feb. 11 edition of a 20-year-old man who apparently wanted to score a hit. The paper reported that the 20-year-old man entered another 20-year-old man's motel room and demanded that he be allowed to cook some cocaine in the motel room renter's microwave. The suspect, police said, also demanded money. The tenant refused, and the 20-year-old man who entered his room tried to hit him with a hammer, striking the man's elbow, before fleeing.
Got an item or tip for this column? Contact night editor David Mirhadi at (307) 266-0616 or david.mirhadi@trib.com