Read Online Uncle John's Ahh-Inspiring Bathroom Reader by Bathroom Readers’ Institute - Free Book Online Page A

Story: On January 29, 2002, home inspector Stan Edmunds was checking out a house in Hinsdale, New Hampshire, for a prospective buyer. To get to the attic, he had to go through a closet, and an odd wooden shelf support kept catching his eye. The third time through, he pulled on it—and out slid a hidden drawer. Inside it: $20,000 in $100 bills.
    Edmunds could have put it in his pocket and walked away, but he didn’t—he called the real-estate agent. The agent contacted the heirs of the homeowner, who divided the money up. And one of them sent Edmunds a check for his honesty…for $50. He said he would be donating it to charity.
CHICAGO HOPE
    The Find: Superbowl Championship ring
    Where It Was Found: In a couch
    The Story: In 1996 retired Hall of Fame running back Walter Payton was coaching a high school basketball team outside of Chicago. As an exercise in trust, he gave one of the boys, Nick Abruzzo, his 1986 Superbowl ring—complete with his name and 41 diamonds—to hold for a few days. Nick and his friends passed it around in awe…and then lost it.
    Five years later, college student Phil Hong bought an old couch for his dorm room from his friend Joe Abruzzo—Nick’s younger brother. One day, while looking in the couch for a lost dog toy, he found the ring. The longtime Chicago fan knew what it was immediately. “Growing up, Walter Payton was my idol,” he said. Unfortunately, Payton died of cancer in 1999, but Hong returned the ring to his widow, Connie Payton. “This ring was what he worked for his whole life,” he said. “It needs to be back in the family.”
    In Greenland there’s a place called Thank God Harbor.
HANGING IN PLAIN SIGHT
    The Find: Masterpiece painting
    Where It Was Found: Hanging on a wall
    The Story: In July 2001, an elderly couple in Cheltenham, England, decided to sell an old painting that had been hanging on a wall in their house for decades. They figured it was worth a few thousand dollars. They wrapped it in a blanket and took it to Christie’s auction house. “They arrived in their van and I came outside to look at what they had,” said appraiser Alexander Pope. “It was a classic valuation moment.” It turned out to be a masterpiece by 17th-century French artist Nicolas Poussin. Sale price at auction: $600,000.
GIVE ME A RING SOMETIME
    The Find: Diamond ring
    Where It Was Found: In a bar in Vancouver, British Columbia
    The Story: In 1998 a man selling costume jewelry approached 21-year-old Tanya Tokevich while she was sitting in a Vancouver bar. She ended up buying a ring for $20. “It didn’t look like much,” she said. “It was dull, but I just thought it was nice.” She decided to have it appraised to find out whether she’d gotten a good deal. She had. It wasn’t costume jewelry—it was an antique engagement ring with a 2.05-carat diamond worth $11,000.
THE CASE OF THE MISSING LIST
    The Find: Famous list
    Where It Was Found: In a suitcase in Germany
    The Story: When a Stuttgart couple found an old suitcase in their parent’s loft after they died in 1999, they didn’t think much of it—until they saw the name on the handle: O. Schindler. Inside were hundreds of documents—including a list of the names of the Jewish slave-laborers and their fake jobs that factory owner Oskar Schindler gave to the Nazis during WWII. The bold move saved 1,200 Jews from extermination and inspired the movie Schindler’s List . Apparently, friends of Schindler’s had used the loft as a storage space decades earlier and then forgot about it. The couple gave the suitcase and all the documents to a newspaper, but asked for no money in return. It now resides in Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum, in Jerusalem.
    Makes sense: Radish comes from the Latin radix , meaning “root.”

CLIFF’S NOTES
    Some questionable wisdom from one of our heroes, Cliff Clavin, the know-it-all mailman