Monsieur Mangetout

When Michel Lotito, a Frenchman from Grenoble, sits down to dinner, the menu might start with a pair of aluminum skis, followed by a supermarket trolley (with a side plate of razor blades) and finish off with a television set, washed down with a few glasses.

Lotito, who goes under the stage name of Monsieur Mangetout (Mr. Eat-All), has made a career out of devouring metal, crockery, and glass without suffering any ill-effects. Since the age of nine, he has been crunching through coins, cutlery, plates, bicycles (he says the chain is the tastiest part), and even a coffin (empty of course). His fines hour came in Caracas, Venezeula, in 1978 when he began eating a Cessna 150 light aircraft. Taking a few snacks each day, it took him 2 years to finish it. Lotito attributes his ability to eat and pass these items naturally to the fact that he was born on June 15, 1950 -- halfway through the middle day of the middle month of the middle year of the 20th century. Puzzled medical experts, however, have a more logical explanation: they found that the lining of his stomach and intestines is twice the thickness of the average human.