Mary Altaffer/AP
Wild Oats, indeed
The wholesome image of Sunflower Farmers Market, an Arizona-based natural foods chain, has taken a bruising with the arrest of its founding CEO on child prostitution charges. Michael C. Gilliland, 52, resigned last weekend after his arrest in a police sting. Phoenix police Sgt. Steve Martos said Gilliland went to a city hotel expecting to have paid sex with a girl who identified herself on the Internet as 17 years old. The girl didn’t exist. Gilliland has vowed to fight the charges. He started his first food chain, Wild Oats Markets, in 1987. Sunflower, with stores across the southern U.S., bills itself as a cheaper alternative to rival Whole Foods.
The Earl takes a wife
It may be coincidence, but news of the engagement of Charles Spencer—better known as the brother of Princess Di—came just a day after Prince William, reportedly not close to his uncle, said his six cousins, including Lady Amelia (expected in court over a row at a McDonald’s in Cape Town, South Africa), would not be in the royal bridal party. The twice-divorced ninth Earl Spencer will marry Canadian philanthropist and former model Karen Gordon on June 18, weeks after William’s wedding—all the better to share the spotlight.
Well, she is called Gabby
Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords is singing and talking in basic sentences as she continues a remarkable recovery after being shot in the head on Jan. 8. She started talking last week, during intensive rehab in Houston. Her husband, Mark Kelly, told NBC News her speech therapist wants her to slow down “and make sure she hears the question first before giving the answer.” On Sunday, Kelly put his wife on the phone to his brother, fellow astronaut Scott Kelly, aboard the International Space Station. “Hi, I’m good,” she said. Doctors caution against being too optimistic, but her mother Gloria Giffords is upbeat. “Little Miss Overachiever is healing very fast,” she said.
Ian Walton/GETTY IMA Walsh/AP
The family that schemes together
Less than a year after he led Canada’s Paralympic curling team to a gold medal win, Jim Armstrong got a different kind of award: he was fined US$30,000 by a Seattle court for his role in a scheme selling fake Viagra and Cialis across the border. “You are a trained medical professional,” Justice Ricardo Martinez told him. “You knew better.” A court will decide in April if Armstrong must also pay restitution to the drug companies. His son and partner in crime, Gregory, fared worse: he was sentenced to a year plus a day in jail, and a fine of US$5,000.
The 100-year diet
Has Catherine Reddoch discovered the secret of eternal youth? The bright-eyed resident of Matamata, New Zealand, will turn 101 in May, and she has eaten the same lunch every day since 1988, shortly before her husband’s death: a McDonald’s cheeseburger and hot chocolate. Reddoch, using a walker, makes the one-kilometre trek to the McD’s every day, places the same order, and sits at the same table to watch the world go by. On Saturdays, she moves on to an off-track betting parlour to put NZ$10 on a horse. The restaurant added a plaque to “Cat’s Corner” in honour of its best customer.
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