Battle of the potato crosses

Move over, Virgin Mary Grilled Cheese. Step aside, Fish Stick Jesus. Online bidders, meet the Holy Cross Potato. Both of them. Yes, the 2009 holiday season bestowed [at least] two miraculous spuds with crosses at their centres. Aside from the sizes of the spuds, the main difference is price.

The potato discovered first, by Dennis Bort of Brunswick, Ohio, on Christmas Day, was listed Tuesday on eBay with an asking bid of $1,000 (Dh3,672). The second, found by a couple in Marion, Iowa, on New Year's Eve, was on sale with bids starting at $2.

The listings do not say much about the conditions of the potatoes, though both definitely have been halved. Police detective Bort said he discovered the potatoes when he wanted to cook mashed potatoes and halved the vegetables to see what appear to be crosses at their centres.

Six days later and 500 miles to the west, Connie Gross of Marion, Iowa, skinned a potato with a similar image inside. She and her husband, Jim, covered it in foil and stuffed it in the fridge. "Our first reaction was, we don't want to eat it," Jim said.

 

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