Grilled Cheese Virgin Mary

[Update — the Grilled Cheese Virgin Mary has a home!]

I admit it, I am an Internet junkie. I guess the fact that I maintain two blogs and a personal website is a dead giveaway. I also make my living working with Internet related technologies.

Because I am a road warrior, I regularly use the Internet to book flights and hotels, pay bills, find restaurants and shop. I am a big fan of EBay. I have bought and sold a variety of items on the online auction service. But this week on CNN I saw something that caught my attention.

I saw an auction for a grilled cheese sandwich with the image of the Virgin Mary on it.

10 years ago, Diana Duser of south Florida made herself a grilled cheese sandwich. As she was taking a bite, she looked closely and saw that the burn marks on the bread had made an image of the Virgin Mary. Diana put the sandwich in a plastic case and when in the ensuing ten years, it has not developed any mold.

This week Diana put the sandwich up on EBay where it had 80,000 viewers. The high bid had reached $22,000 before EBay removed the auction. According to CNN, EBay remoed the auction because they though it was a hoax.

Since then EBay has decided to allow the auction. According to EBay spokesman Hani Durzy:

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. We're going to allow it to stay up.

I don't know whether to laugh or cry. I think scientists should do a DNA match between the Virgin Mary grilled cheese sandwich and the Holy Tortilla. (The Holy Tortilla is a tortilla with Jesus' face on it.)

Maybe it is because I am no longer Catholic — I think the image looks a little bit like Shirley Temple.