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in the seminary. But no one had ever seen it, and it was probably just that, a rumor. Then, one summer day in 2005, Carbo was cleaning out some cabinets in the library’s basement and found a colorful, hardbound book. The moment she saw it, she suspected it was the Beethoven symphony, but she can’t read music (or German), so she called in musical experts, who verified that it was indeed Beethoven’s “Gross Fugue in B flat major.” Released in 1826, less than a year before Beethoven’s death, the fugue—with its frequent use of dissonance—was panned by the critics. (It’s since been called “ahead of its time.”) The 80-page manuscript revealed the work of a composer who was constantly erasing and revising, and who wrote notes in the margins on everything from proper piano fingering techniques to his own dissatisfaction with the work. “This piece, more than any other, shows Beethoven striving for something beyond all human limits,” said American composer Gerald Levinson. How did it get to an American seminary? In 1890 it was purchased in Germany by Cincinnati industrialist William Howard Doane. The manuscript was thought to have been a part of a collection donated to the seminary by Sloane’s daughter in 1950, but everything else from that collection (including an original Mozart manuscript) had been accounted for. For decades, historians assumed that Beethoven’s Gross Fugue was lost forever. In December 2005 it was sold at auction to an anonymous buyer. Sale price: $1.7 million.
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    GETTING A LITTLE ACTION
    The Find: A comic book
    Where It Was Found: In a box in the basement
    The Story: A down-on-their-luck family (who wish to remain anonymous) was about to lose their home. It had been in the family since the 1950s, but by 2010 they were nearly bankrupt and facing foreclosure. With no way to meet their mortgage payments, they decided it was time to pack up and move out. When Dad and the kids were sorting though boxes of Grandpa’s stuff in the basement (which hadn’t been touched for decades), they found some old comic books. One of them, called Action Comics #1 , featured Superman on the cover, holding a car over his head. It was dated June, 1938. Could this be the very first Superman comic? The father contacted Vincent Zurzolo, the owner of Metropolis Collectibles in New York. “99.9 percent of the claims I hear that someone has found Action Comics #1 turn out be false,” he later said. But this time it was the real deal —the most sought-after comic book in existence. Originally sold for 10 cents, less than 100 copies are known to exist. It’s expected to fetch anywhere from $250,000 to $1 million for the family—more than enough to save their house. “You couldn’t have asked for a happier ending,” said Zurzolo. “Superman saved the day.”

PINK PING PONG
Heirloom tomatoes are rare or obscure varieties of tomatoes that result from random, natural cross-pollination. There are hundreds of them, and they’re often uniquely colored, shaped…and named. These are real names of real varieties .
    Banana Legs
    Ding Wall Scotty
    Extreme Bush
    Heidi
    Burgess Mammoth Wonder
    Turkey Chomp
    Arkansas Traveler
    Smeig Craig
    Black Sea Man
    Glamour
    Polish Dwarf
    Red Stuffer
    Bloody Butcher
    Mortgage Lifter
    Snow White
    Tartar of Mongolistan
    Delicious
    Eva’s Purple Ball
    Tommy Toe
    Mr. Stripey
    German Johnson
    Black From Tula
    Moneymaker
    Blaby Special
    Golden Egg
    Spoon
    Green Zebra
    Big Rainbow
    Plum Tigris
    Sugar Lump
    Amish Paste
    Zogola
    Beauty Queen
    Pink Ping Pong
    Orange Fleshed Purple Smudge
    Cherry-Go-Round
    Kellogg’s Breakfast
    Stump of the World
    Hank
Mamma mia! Average ticket price for a Broadway show in 2010: $76.

THE LAST…
it’s nice to be the first, but being last can be memorable too .
    …surviving American World War I veteran: Frank Buckles joined the Army at age 16