Selling out

In January this year Veronica Dennis' home caught fire. The upside of it was that she earned her 15 minutes of fame when she discovered the following simulacra made of soot and smoke, what she describes as an image of the Virgin Mary.



She was optimistic that the find would spell the end of what she said was a streak of bad luck she'd been experiencing. You see, on Friday the 13th she lost her job; the next day her daughter's boyfriend broke his leg; and finally on Sunday, there was the fire.

Well, guess what? Seven months down the road and her Jobian fate hasn't made a turnaround. Dennis was out of work for three months and is now behind in her payments.

"I'm working two jobs now trying to get caught up, but I can barely pay the current bills, but not the past bills. Our life has been a complete mess for seven months," she said.

Because of her financial troubles she's reneged on her initial decision to keep the "apparition" and has already tried selling the Virgin.

Back then, Dennis told news organization that she intended to keep the apparition. "I don't want people to think I'm going to try to make a fortune off it. It's not my intention to put it on eBay," she told the Sun Journal newspaper.

Well, like a number of other religious simulacra this Virgin ended up in eBay. That ought to fetch her a couple of Gs and help ease her woes. That is, if there are any takers.

Dennis listed the starting bid at $2,500 in a posting that described the apparition making "national and international news." But there were no takers before the deadline expired Sunday.

Talk about being totally out of luck.

Darn feckless Virgin.