Upscale department store chain Nieman Marcus today filed for bankruptcy protection, the fanciest retailer to fail so far during the coronavirus pandemic.

Creditors hope to have the company solvent again next year. Though knocked out by the lockdown, the company was already sickly after years of private equity buyouts and its own general decrepitude.

At the end of March the coronavirus pandemic temporarily forced the closure of all 43 Neiman Marcus stores, as well as its two Bergdorf Goodman locations and Last Call outlets, all but stopping sales and crushing revenue. But while that may have been the immediate cause of Neiman’s filing, its problems had been building for years. The company took on an untenable amount of debt as part of two leveraged buyouts by private-equity firms and did not respond quickly enough to changes in shopping habits. Together, those developments left the group in a precarious position even before the virus hit.

In Stockton, California, KCRA's Melinda Meza did a live TV segment about hairstyling on location in her home bathroom. Special guest star: her naked partner in the shower. Read the rest

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Thinking it was a really old bottle of alcohol, Antiques Roadshow expert Andy McConnell took a tiny drink of some brown mystery liquid in a 2016 episode. Repulsed by the taste, the glass expert said, "I think it's port - port or red wine... or it's full of rusty old nails and that's rust." In a new episode, the show's host, Fiona Bruce, has now revealed that he was partially right. There was rust, as well as urine, a single human hair, and a couple other things.

Independent:

"Inside were these brass pins, all of these dating from the late 1840s, and the liquid – urine, a tiny pit of alcohol and one human hair," explained Bruce.

"And a mysterious little creature called an ostracod, which is like a little cockle. So [this] was not a bottle of port or wine, but a witches bottle.

"So buried in the threshold of the house as a talisman against witchcraft, against curses, against misfortune coming into the home."

McConnell replied: "Yummy. Such good news."

screenshot via News 247 Live Read the rest

[The moral of this story is buy a Roomba, they last longer and have better software.]

A man and a woman in Forsyth County, North Carolina, called for help just after midnight when they awoke to loud noises and crashing downstairs, and hid in their closet to dial 911. Read the rest

In Chicago, a salt truck slid on the icy street right into Lake Michigan. Read the rest

Oh boy.

Donald's not going to like this one at all. Read the rest

Mangoes spilling from an overturned tractor trailer caused a messy morning commute on Maryland beltway. Read the rest