Last but not least: The somewhat different Christmas story
Admittedly, given the current season, a Christmas story would actually be the logical choice here—something involving candles, Christmas trees, delicious cookies, or, for all I care, Christmas mailings, Christmas shopping, or Christmas at the point of sale.
I'm sorry to disappoint you, dear readers. The following story is somehow not at all Christmassy - but all the more curious. But read it for yourself:
A British woman accidentally swallowed a felt-tip pen a quarter of a century ago. How this happened is a long story - and is unlikely to interest anyone here. For 25 years, nobody believed her - even X-rays showed no evidence of a felt-tip pen. Then, when the abdominal pain suddenly got worse and worse and the lady became thinner and thinner, she was examined again - this time with a CT scan. Lo and behold, the doctors discovered a "linear foreign body" in the woman's stomach. After a lengthy discussion, the doctors finally decided to remove it. Which they did (of course, the foreign body turned out to be a felt-tip pen). One of the doctors had the original idea of trying out whether the pen would still work after 25 years. And indeed it did - at least it was possible to write "Hello" on a piece of paper. And everyone was happy: the doctors because they had operated successfully and the lady because she was relieved of the abdominal pain - and perhaps also because she could finally hold her felt-tip pen in her hands again.
With a large dose of imagination, this could also be a Christmas story - at least somehow. Or maybe not. Be that as it may, we wish you a Merry Christmas and a lively and successful start to 2012.
(Source: Spiegel.de)
