Did your neighbor suddenly show up at home with a new car, maybe a new boat or perhaps other signs of newfound wealth?

Perhaps he or she was the holder of the winning Louisiana Lotto jackpot ticket sold in Youngsville last week. Matching all six numbers was worth $675,000, and the lucky numbers were 4-14-21-22-29-36.

I read recently about a “professional eater” who ate 33 1/2 burritos in 10 minutes to win the 2009 World Burrito Eating Championship at the New Mexico State Fair. The winner was from Pennsylvania and edged out the second-place finisher, from Florida, who ate 30 in the event sponsored by the International Federation of Competitive Eating.

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I’ve read about them before but am still surprised there are professional eaters, much less an organization of professional eaters that sanctions these contests.

The burritos were 4 ounces each, filled with beef, beans and green chile.

Eating 33 1/2 4-ounce burritos means the winner ate more than 8 pounds of burritos in 10 minutes, more than a lot in a leisurely setting, a heck of a lot in such a short time.

The winner received a $1,500 cash prize. He reportedly didn’t eat for two days prior to the event to prepare himself for the competition. I wonder how long after the event he also didn’t eat, to recuperate?

Sometimes saying you are sorry just isn’t enough, like the other day when the suburban New York nuclear power plant’s emergency siren system mistakenly blasted out “Emergency! Emergency!”

Obviously residents of New City, about 30 miles north of Manhattan, were shaken up.

According to the Associated Press report I saw on the incident, a resident said the mechanical voice had an unsettling, post-apocalyptic overtone to it.

I’m not sure if there’s any way for a nuclear plant to announce an emergency that doesn’t sound a bit unsettling.

Officials said the message “shouldn’t have happened” and plant officials have disabled the voice mechanism, as well as fixed problems with four other sirens.

Sorry about needlessly making you think there was an accident at the nuclear plant in which radioactive particles had been released into the air and you were soon going to start glowing in the dark right before you melt — Ouch!

Of course now apparently since the warnings are disabled, until you glow, you have nothing about which to worry.

It’s pretty rare for any golfer to get a hole-in-one. I imagine there are a few who’ve done it more than once, but how many can match the 64-year-old British woman who recently got two holes-in-one during a single round of golf?

She got the first on the third hole and then a second one on the 13th.

Golf Digest reportedly put the odds of two holes-in-one at 67 million to one.

But then consider that the same story I saw reported that just a few days prior to the British woman’s rare feat, Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Steve Blass got two holes-in-one in a span of 11 holes during the team’s annual alumni golf outing.

Will Chapman is publisher of The Daily Iberian.