Man collects 1,500 plus unique pizza boxes

Sometimes, obsession for something sees no boundaries and collectors go to unimaginable lengths to make world records. Scott Wiener in Flatbush, Brooklyn has amassed the world’s largest collection of pizza boxes.

The Guinness World Record holder said the collection in his New York home has grown to more than 1,500 and it ranges from locations as far away as Antarctica and the Faroe Islands.

Wiener was awarded the Guinness World Record in 2013, when his collection amounted to 595 different boxes. He said his collection has since ballooned to more than 1,500, allowing him to hold on to the record.

The collector, who started keeping pizza boxes about 11 years ago, said most of the boxes are unused, and he has a rigorous cleaning process he developed for boxes that formerly contained greasy meals.

Wiener’s pizza fandom extends to more than just collecting boxes: he leads “Pizza Tours” of Brooklyn and Manhattan and he released a book called Viva la Pizza! The Art of the Pizza Box.

Bizarre eye-less creature washes up on the beach

An odd creature with dolphin-like head, sharp fanged-teeth and a long snake-like tail has washed up on the Destiladeras beach on the Pacific coast of Mexico.

No one has been able to identify it. According to local reports, the animal does not have eyes, prompting some to predict that it may well have come from deep in the Pacific Ocean where no light penetrates and eyes are not needed.

If that is the case, they have no idea how it would wash up on the beach from the depths. According to local media, the animal was photographed after it had already been found by people walking on the beach, who initially thought it was a dead dolphin.

It was only when they got closer, they realised it was something entirely different. None of the fishermen interviewed by local media could remember ever seeing anything like it previously.

A five-legged green tree frog

Deborah Pergolotti, of the conservation group Frog Safe, has seen a lot of strange things in her 21 years as a frog carer, but she has never seen a five-legged frog.

“(It is growing) right out of the front of the chest, it is like a Picasso painting, in miniature,” Ms Pergolotti said.

“I have seen this in cane toads from south-east Queensland, but this is the first frog that has come in with this condition. The amphibian was found in a Mackay backyard and was transported to a vet in Cairns to have the limb amputated.

The frog’s additional limb was functional, but due to its location it was thought the limb was hindering the amphibian’s activities, which is why the surgery option was looked into.

The common green tree frog is listed as Least Concern in the Queensland list of threatened species, however, Ms Pergolotti said their numbers have been in decline for more than two decades, which is why they decided to proceed with the amputation.

The frog’s surgery was completed successfully, and it was then transported back to Frog Safe in Mission Beach where it will recover in two to three weeks.

Published in Dawn, Young World, February 22nd, 2020