A Russian woman on the run and a poisoned cheesecake

Olga Tsvyk got a job doing eyelash extensions, a skill she had picked up back home in Ukraine. In March 2016, a 40-something recent Russian immigrant named Viktoria Nasyrova walked into her salon. Nasyrova told Tsvyk that she was a masseuse and that she lived with her boyfriend in Brooklyn. She was open and friendly, and they talked easily when she came in for appointments every few weeks. They shared cultural references, enjoyed tastes of home, like beef rib dumplings and sour cherry jam, and had both endured the same journey to the U.S. — wrestling with legal issues and piles of paperwork. They also looked remarkably like each other. But Nasyrova wasn’t who she said she was. She had been on the run in Russia for at least a year, and her U.S. visa was set to expire. Nasyrova decided to kill her doppelgänger and steal her life — or at least her immigration status. Her weapon of choice: a slice of cheesecake. (via Elle)

She discovered the first living example of a prehistoric Coelacanth in the 1930s

In 1938, Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer, a museum curator in South Africa was paying a visit to the docks as part of her regular duties. One of her jobs was to inspect any catches thought by local fishermen to be out of the ordinary. Later, Courtenay-Latimer recalled: “I picked away at a layer of slime to reveal the most beautiful fish I had ever seen. It was pale mauvy blue, with faint flecks of whitish spots; it had an iridescent silver-blue-green sheen all over. It was covered in hard scales, and it had four limb-like fins and a strange puppy-dog tail." Courtenay-Latimer didn’t know what the fish was but she was determined to find out. She convinced a taxi driver to put the 127-pound dead fish in the back of his cab and take them back to the museum. She attempted to preserve the fish so it could be examined by an icythologist–first by taking it to the local hospital morgue and then by having it taxidermied. (via The Smithsonian)

The 11th Earl of Sandwich owns a chain that sells the food named after his predecessor

The Earl of Sandwich chain is the brainchild of Orlando Montagu, the younger son of the 11th Earl of Sandwich. He and his father are direct descendants of the 4th Earl who popularised the sandwich in Great Britain and Ireland in the 18th century. The first restaurant was opened on March 19, 2004, located in Downtown Disney (now known as Disney Springs) on the property of the Walt Disney World Resort outside of Orlando, Florida. Earl of Sandwich has franchising plans in the United States and the United Kingdom, including the Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. The first Earl of Sandwich franchise opened in Sugar Land, Texas, and is owned by an investment group which includes Nolan Ryan and Roger Clemens. Additional locations have opened since, in various states across the United States. (via Wikipedia)

Hi everyone! Mathew Ingram here. I am able to continue writing this newsletter in part because of your financial help and support, which you can do either through my Patreon or by upgrading your subscription to a monthly contribution. I enjoy gathering all of these links and sharing them with you, but it does take time, and your support makes it possible for me to do that. I also write a weekly newsletter of technology analysis called The Torment Nexus.

A British drag queen unknowingly provided the makeup used in a $73M jewel heist

As a drag performer, La Voix can do just about anything from comedy to singing and dancing — and, apparently, disguise jewel thieves. La Voix, the drag persona of 45-year-old Englishman Chris Dennis, was a runner-up and fan favourite on the sixth season of RuPaul's Drag Race U.K. and is currently winning hearts on the BBC's Strictly Come Dancing, the British counterpart to Dancing With the Stars. But before he was a TV star, Dennis worked as a makeup artist in London — where, in 2009, he unwittingly played a role in one of the biggest robberies in British history. "I did the make-up for two robbers in the biggest jewelry heist in the U.K," said Dennis. On Aug. 6, 2009, two handgun-wielding men in suits walked into Graff Diamonds' flagship store in London's West End and stole around £40 million ($73 million at the time) worth of rings, bracelets, necklaces and watches. The men were disguised in prosthetics and makeup. (via the CBC)

The Masons claim jurisdiction over the Moon thanks to Brother Buzz Aldrin

On July 20, 1969, two American Astronauts landed on the moon of the planet Earth, in an area known as Mare Tranquilitatis , or “Sea of Tranquility”. One of those brave men was Brother Edwin Eugene (Buzz) Aldrin, Jr., a member of Clear Lake Lodge No. 1417, A.F. & A.M., Seabrook, Texas. Brother Aldrin carried with him Special Deputation of then Grand Master J. Guy Smith, constituting and appointing Brother Aldrin as Special Deputy of the Grand Master, granting unto him full power in the premises to represent the Grand Master as such and authorize him to claim Masonic Territorial Jurisdiction for The Most Worshipful Grand Lodge of Texas on The Moon, and directed that he make due return of his acts. Brother Aldrin certified that the Special Deputation was carried by him to the Moon on the space flight July 20, 1969. (via TL2K)

A nursing professor demonstrates how an endoscopy can be done without anaesthesia

Acknowledgements: I find a lot of these links myself, but I also get some from other newsletters that I rely on as "serendipity engines," such as The Morning News from Rosecrans Baldwin and Andrew Womack, Jodi Ettenberg's Curious About Everything, Dan Lewis's Now I Know, Robert Cottrell and Caroline Crampton's The Browser, Clive Thompson's Linkfest, Noah Brier and Colin Nagy's Why Is This Interesting, Maria Popova's The Marginalian, Sheehan Quirke AKA The Cultural Tutor, the Smithsonian magazine, and JSTOR Daily. If you come across something interesting that you think should be included here, please feel free to email me at mathew @ mathewingram dot com