A woman in Berlin, Germany claimed a phobia of official letters during her appeal to the authorities’ decision to cut off her child support benefits. The court ruled against her.

The woman was sent a letter in May of 2007 asking her to provide evidence to support continued payments for her daughter. She did not open the letter and failed to respond. Money was cut off in July of 2007 and she was given a month limit to appeal. She finally replied with the requested documents in September and her appeal was thrown out for being too late. Her appeals continue to be rejected.

She then gave her excuse that she has a phobia of official correspondence. What I want to know is who doesn’t? Any official letters in my mailbox are pretty much always scary to open. Especially when they have a bigass letterhead and it’s only to be opened by ME. Dun dun dun… who likes it when the contents are bills or court issued documents or bank statements? I really don’t know. I guess she said she was too ashamed to go through psychological treatment and that’s why she received mail and just threw it in a pile. Crazy lady.

April 20th has come and gone, but not before it saw thousands of adolescents across the country tokin’ up and getting down with some fine herb. If you happened to partake in the festivities however, you may want to be wary. A bout of lead poisoning in Leipzig, Germany baffled doctors and it looks like Mary Jane was to blame.

According to a report in the New England Journal of Medicine, over the past 3-4 months about 29 incidents of lead poisoning were reported in the Leipzig area. This alarmed city officials, as Leipzig has been lead poison free in recent decades, and they were eager to discover the cause of the poisoning in case a public threat were imminent. Finally after probing the victims for background information, the culprit was revealed…

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According to a piece in USA Today a 78 year old woman who went to a hospital in Germany last month for a little surgery on her leg ended up leaving the hospital with - get this - an artificial anus. Opps. What this woman do with her shiny new artificial anus besides maybe buy it some nice, soft, triple-ply TP from some of the funds in her forthcoming settlement is yet to be seen.

German newspaper Frankenpost says some members of the surgical team have been punished in connection with the series of mistakes that led them to operate on the wrong patient.

Prosecutors are said to be looking into the incident. As for the unidentified patient, she still needs knee surgery and plans to file a lawsuit.

Our German friends are going to scoff at this post, but people on the western shores of the Atlantic better take note. Today’s Band You’ve Never Heard of Band of the Day is Schnuffel, and much like beer, bratwurst and Hasselhoff, it’s HUGE in Germany. The hit single, “Snuggle Song” has been no. 1 on German single charts for six weeks in a row. Six. Check out a stream of the song here, but if you’re brave of heart, watch the video.

If you stare at it long enough, it starts telling you things. Things you don’t want to hear.

While we’re at it, we might as well honor another notable, European rabbit in the entertainment world.