She Saw Nothing Wrong With Tobacco Juice

Brian Tingley's entry in TierneyLab's Best Weird-Name Story Contest:

The Gazette was a bi-weekly publication of the Government of the Province of Saskatchewan in Canada. It contained the official notification of new legislation pending, laws passed, hearings scheduled, and so on. What made it most interesting was the list of proposed name changes. If you planned to change your name, the old and new names had to be published in the Gazette.

So there it was that I saw Thelma Jean Tobacco Juice had applied to change her name. The poor woman. How she must have been the subject of ridicule through her growing up years. But she seemed to have missed the point. Her new name… Mary Elizabeth Tobacco Juice.

Shivery Spines Run in the Family

The remains of a woman were found in an abandoned well in Saskatchewan last summer. Jo Ann Manton believes they are those of her great-grandmother, Harriet (Dyson) Calvert.

For many years, one of Manton's aunts has researched the family history and, in particular, Calvert's disappearance in the early 1900s. Manton was visiting her aunt in Calgary last summer when the discovery became national news.

"It just sent shivers up both of our spines," said Manton. "It was a very intuitive feeling. That's fairly strong in our family." [Link]