the cheese stands alone

Holy Cheesus!

Sometimes we here at The Cheese get mail. Mostly it's a plea for Nigerian funding, or a demand that we acquire drugs to keep us big and hard forever, but once in a while a real person writes to us.
These moments, by the way, make us dance like schoolgirls with full bladders on a bouncy bus and speak of ourselves in the plural.
New reader Karla writes:
"Hi Lee Ann…
I’m a newbie to your site and I love it. I ran across this little tidbit while scanning the wires at work this afternoon. It had your name written all over it:

MIAMI (AP) - The Internet auction house eBay Inc. reversed itself Tuesday and is allowing bids for half of a 10-year-old grilled cheese sandwich that its owner says bears the image of the Virgin Mary.

Diana Duyser, of Hollywood, put the sandwich up for sale last week, drawing bids as high as $22,000 before eBay pulled the item Sunday night. The page was viewed almost 100,000 times before being taken down.

An e-mail Duyser received from eBay said the sandwich broke its policy, which "does not allow listings that are intended as jokes."

But Duyser, a work-from-home jewelry designer who has bought and sold items on eBay for two years, said the grilled cheese isn't a joke.
EBay spokesman Hani Durzy said that the listing was mistakenly pulled the first time because it was deemed questionable whether Duyser could deliver the product.

"After looking at it a second time, there's nothing to indicate that the seller isn't willing to give up this cheese sandwich to the highest bidder," he said. "We're going to allow it to stay up."

The auction was back on Tuesday afternoon with a top bid of $11,000. The winning bidder also has to pay $9.95 for shipping. In mocking response, two similar items were later posted - grilled cheese sandwiches said to be bearing the images of the Virgin Mary's used gum and Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen.

Duyser thought eBay would be the best place to show off the sandwich, made on plain white bread and American cheese and cooked with no oil or butter. She said she took a bite after making it 10 years ago and saw a face staring back at her from the bread.

Duyser, 52, put the sandwich in a clear plastic box with cotton balls and kept it on her night stand.

At first, she was scared by the image, "but now that I realize how unique it is, I wanted to share it with the world," Duyser told The Miami Herald.

She said the sandwich has never sprouted a spore of mold.

On the Net:
Virgin Mary sandwich auction: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category

I can't wait to see what shows up in the tomato soup.
Ewww, maybe I can.