Traditional bridge replacement on as prominent a highway as Interstate 15 in Mesquite, Nev., has generally required rerouting traffic for as long as a year, but the new “accelerated” technology necessitated detours for less than a week.
Excited engineers traveled in from around the country to watch the old bridge be demolished and the new one (which had been built on a platform off to the side) be slid into place using hydraulic jacks and Teflon-coated metal beams — lubricated with Dawn dishwashing detergent to glide them smoothly into the old frame.
The Nevada Department of Transportation estimated that the accelerated process saved commuters about $12 million in time and fuel costs.
Even
they
draw a
lie line           
“Our critics are absolutely right. We are professional liars,” said Everett Davis, founder of the Internet-based Reference Store, which supplies pumped-up, but false, resumes for job-seekers having trouble landing work.
Davis and associates are ex-investigators schooled in deception and therefore good at fooling human resources personnel who follow up on the bogus work claims.
Davis admitted he would even disguise a customer’s past criminal record — but not if the job is in public safety, health care or schools.
Don’t
throw
that
away   
The British Medical Journal reported that a 76-year-old woman had been unbothered until recently by the felt-tip pen she accidentally swallowed 25 years earlier.
It was removed without complication, and, though the plastic was flaky, the pen still had an ink supply and was “usable.”
(Send your Weird News to Chuck Shepherd, P.O. Box 18737, Tampa Fla. 33679 or go to www.newsoftheweird.com.)