All the news that's fit to fit.

January 31 | February 2, 9 | March 8

Feb. 2, 2001

[The story that made it worth getting out of bed that day:]

Piece of thumb found in sandwich at Barnstable High

HYANNIS (AP)-- School officials and the food company that serves Barnstable High School were investigating how a small piece of a human thumb ended up in turkey-and-tomato sandwich.

A female student, who asked not to be identified, spat out the thumb while eating her lunch Wednesday.

"Everybody was talking about it all day," said senior Keara Grier, who said she witnessed the event from a nearby table, told the Cape Cod Times.

Nick Chamberlain, another student, said, "Our lunch is our most valuable time, and now we have to eat fingers."

Officials determined the partial appendage belonged to a cafeteria worker who had severed the top of her thumb in a vegetable slicer Tuesday.

Spokesmen for Sodexho Marriott Services, which serves the school, said they will contact the student who ended up with the thumb in her sandwich, as well as conduct their own internal investigation.

"Obviously this is completely unacceptable. We are investigating what happened, and we will take appropriate action," said Scott Loretan, senior vice president of operations for the company.

By Thursday morning, state and town health officials had been notified. "Blood-borne diseases cannot be transmitted through food," said Roseanne Pawelec, spokeswoman for the Massachusetts Department of Health.

"We understand this is very upsetting, but there is no public health risk, and we want to make sure people know that."

The student declined to discuss the matter with a reporter. A health inspector was shown the partial appendage. "It was clear to the inspector that it was a small piece of fingernail and flesh from a right thumb," said Thomas McKean, director of public health in Barnstable.

McKean said a cafeteria supervisor told Miorandi that the automatic slicing machine the worker was using when injured had been sanitized, and all nearby food thrown out.

Jan. 31, 2001

Americans Favor Cars Over Kids

DETROIT (Reuters) -- America's long love affair with the car, complete with gifts on Valentine's Day, would appear to be going a bit too far, a poll shows.

The nationwide online survey by Ohio-based Progressive Insurance found that 45 percent of married Americans ranked their cars as the thing they considered most important to them.

In answer to separate questions regarding their preferences, only 6 percent rated their children as important and just 10 percent said their spouse or significant other was important to them, the survey said.

The survey, conducted Jan. 5-15 and based on answers from 516 respondents, found that 84 percent of Americans love their cars while 32 percent have actually given their four-wheeled gas-guzzler a name.

Seventeen percent of male participants planned to buy their vehicle a gift on Valentine's Day, the poll said.

It did not say what gifts might be handed out for the occasion but Progressive, the fourth-largest auto insurance company in the United States, suggested rose-scented air fresheners or a vintage can of motor oil.