Not one, but two odd pieces of news.
I’m a bit of a hypocrite. I laughed at this first story, despite only a few days ago registering my dismay at the way everyone was laughing at Mister ‘Death by Chocolate.’
German cook tries to copy Heston Blumenthal, blows hands off
A German cook blew his hands off while trying to recreate Heston Blumenthal’s ‘molecular gastronomy’ techniques, according to newspaper reports.
The 24-year-old man was apparently attempting to use liquid nitrogen in a recipe while cooking at his girlfriend’s mother’s house in Stahnsdorf, near Berlin.
According to reports in the Berliner Morgenpost, there was a ‘huge explosion’, which tore one of his hands off instantly, and left the other needing to be amputated at hospital.
Liquid nitrogen is not actually an explosive substance, but it can cause a dangerous blast if it vapourises and expands rapidly, and needs to be stored in special containers.
According to the reports, the man originally tried to tell authorities that the explosion occurred when he’d been trying to fill a gas lighter, but his girlfriend told police that he’d actually been trying to empty a container of liquid nitrogen.
Liquid nitrogen is widely used in preparing food by Heston Blumenthal and other followers of the molecular gastronomy movement, which tries to innovate new cooking methods based on the chemical and physical processes occurring in the food.
The man was airlifted to hospital after the blast. Neither his girlfriend or her mother were harmed.
And the second one:
German beer lover goes down the drain
A German beer drinker ended up in an awkward situation after he failed to spot an open drain and fell inside – and then had to be freed by firemen because his oversized beer belly left him wedged inside.
Gerhard Wilder, 46, from Bochum in western Germany has now pledged to stay off beer and go on a diet after the embarrassing pictures were shown all over German media.
A motorist raised the alarm after he went to move a car parked next to the trapped man.
He said: ‘I tried to pull him out but he was wedged tight. He didn’t see that jokers had removed the drain cover as he staggered home.’
How nice of the media to spare the man’s dignity by blurring his face.
Great prank with the guy halfway stuck in the ground. That looks hilarious.