It must be true...

I read it in the tabloids

■ A New Zealand woman who suffered chronic sinus pain was shocked to discover that a tiddlywink had been lodged in her nose for 37 years. Mary McCarthy spent decades feeling discomfort and finally sought out a doctor when a Covid swab test worsened the pain. Under his questioning, she remembered putting a tiddlywink in her nose as a child, accidentally inhaling it. “I remember being terrified, thinking, where has it gone,” she said. Afraid to tell her mother, she put the accident out of her mind. “I always had difficulties breathing through my nose,” McCarthy said after the yellow disc was removed, “but never gave it much thought.”

■ A team of 30 artists joined forces to build the world’s biggestever sandcastle in the Danish seaside town of Blokhus. The sculptors used more than 5,000 tons of sand reinforced with clay to construct the intricately designed pyramid, which stands just under 70 feet tall. Chief artist Wilfred Stijger of the Netherlands said he wanted the structure, which is topped with a coronavirus wearing a crown, to represent the way the coronavirus “is ruling our world, and not allowing us to do what we want to do.”

■ It’s billed as the perfect gift for the “gassy people in your life”: a fart vacuum that “reduces the stench of flatulence.” The FartVac is a handoperated pump with a nozzle that fits beneath your pants, where it claims to filter “fart gas” using activated carbon technology. The device can be worn throughout the day or operated at short notice as the need arises. “You can now fart without shame,” the manufacturer says. “No more pain while fighting nature and holding in gas.”