Under the heading of: “I couldn’t make it up if I tried . . . .”
Last year, it was reported that internationally acclaimed soprano Lisa Gasteen was able to return to the stage, three years after a mishap involving marmalade cut short her career. “In 2008, Gasteen had returned to her Brisbane home after a series of overseas performances when she spied her kumquat tree full of fruit. With a batch of marmalade in mind, she grabbed a bucket and climbed a ladder while still in her high heels, and pinched a nerve. The injury caused the muscles around her larynx to spasm painfully when she sang and forced her sudden exit from opera with a full schedule of bookings, crushing her fans worldwide.” [1]
Another news report describes how a millionaire killed during a robbery may have been fed marmalade by the raiders. Police suspected that the gang gave diabetic John Luper, the sugar-laden food thinking he had lapsed into a coma. A murder hunt was launched after Mr Luper’s body was found near a spoon and a jar of marmalade in a laundry room of his £1 million home in an affluent Leeds suburb. A post-mortem failed to establish exactly how Mr Luper died. [2]
And finally, a warning for all those who make marmalade: beware your stove. Biochemist and former teacher Keith Turnbull, 61, died in his remote cottage near Walk, northern England, just before Christmas while stirring homemade marmalade, unaware his faulty gas stove was emitting deadly carbon monoxide gas. The scientist’s dog Cleugh also died. [3]
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