Weird Universe Archive
August 2008
August 2, 2008
Chuck’s Hand-Picked Overnight Weird News for Saturday
Marketing to people who are inept at multi-taskingThe Child Minder System will beep if you happen to get out of your car, having accidentally left your little urchin in the child seat. That's if you're not too scatter-brained to punch in the code in the first place. "All our lives are so busy," said a spokeswoman. "As a mom, you can get really distracted," said a mom. [Ed.: More marketing opportunities! What if you're so busy you forget which side of the road to drive on? What if you're so distracted, you park directly on the railroad tracks? Those people need devices, too, and they can just as well buy them from you!] WOAI-TV (San Antonio)
Comments 'child_minder'
Did the Bishop get beaten up, or was it just a nasty fall?
Last year, Bishop Donald Pelotte of the diocese in Gallup, N.Mex., was hospitalized with two black eyes and what looks like a couple dozen other bruises and cuts all over his body. Said he fell down a flight of stairs. [Ed.: There's video, and nobody has ever had "a fall" like that.] Then, a few months later, the Bishop made a 911 call about "little men" (3- or 4-feet tall), wearing Halloween masks, running around his house, and that he needed help (even though, he said, they were "gentle"). KOAT-TV (Albuquerque)
Comments 'bishop_pelotte'
A challenging defense strategy to refute a fraud charge
Remi Fakorede, a Nigerian immigrant, was charged with a £925k tax fraud in London, but told the court she was innocent, in that she was a helpless victim of a curse, and, by the way, as evidence of the curse, she reached into her handbag and pulled out two fingers that she said belonged to one of her children. The very same curse that hit me made these fingers fall off! BBC News
Comments 'fingers_curse'
Girl, age 15, 462 lbs.
She looks happy enough in the photos (with her smiling mother), even though "doctors told me I could drop dead at any moment." But, lest you think she's one of those people who feels she's just a victim, she does admit: "I know it's partly my fault." "t's so hard to stop eating." The Sun (London)
Comments 'fattest_teen'
Your Daily Loser
Judon McCann, 17, accidentally shot himself in the thigh while "holstering" his gun in his pocket, after missing what he was shooting at, all over of a $10 debt. Times-Picayune (New Orleans)
Comments 'judon_mccann'
People Whose Sex Lives Are Worse Than Yours
Edwin Tobergta III, Cincinnati [again, Cincinnati!], was once again released without jail time, on his 6th public indecency conviction (an earlier one of which involved simulating sexual intercourse with a large plastic pumpkin at Halloween). Cincinnati Enquirer [Yep, there's a mug shot!]
Comments 'edwin_tobergta'
Your Daily Jury Duty
[no fair examining the evidence; verdict must be based on mugshot only]
Philip Fleck and his gal Heather Darcy might have been the people who went on that 18-month spree involving the egging of over 400 homes around Lansdale, Pa. KOAA-TV via WCAU-TV (Philadelphia)
Comments 'fleck_darcy'
More Things to Worry About on Saturday
Little urchins commandeering cars has been No Longer Weird for a while, but this one not only has a tender-age driver (4), it has his 2-yr-old brother riding shotgun . . . . . A Houston paralegal sued for wrongful discharge, and she clearly learned a thing or two from hanging around lawyers; she didn't claim mere sexual harassment, but that she was told to go down on a reluctant witness to make him friendlier . . . . . They don't make muggers like they used to: booty consisted of a pack of cigarettes, a lighter, a costume earring, and "three Post-It notes" . . . . . Unclear on the Concept: Landlord, tired of a tenant owing back rent, smashed in the front door with his Hummer . . . . . World's oldest joke uncovered (weak punchline, but it's about marital farting, so it has that going for it). Today's Newsrangers: Jonathan Kopke, Larry Seltzer, John Holsinger, Steve Miller
Comments 'worry_080802'
Posted By: Chuck - Sat Aug 02, 2008 -
Comments (0)
Category:
August 1, 2008
Lez Zepplin
Loyal and perceptive reader Rain Oubliette, commenting on the Space Age Fridge Ladies, mentions that they resemble an all-female Devo cover band, possibly named "Shevo." Well, no such weird group exists, to the best of my knowledge. But we do have the incomparable Lez Zepplin.Watch them perform in the clip below.
Posted By: Paul - Fri Aug 01, 2008 -
Comments (3)
Category: Music, ShowBiz, Gender, LGBT, Women, Sex Symbols, 1960s, 1970s
The Art of Chris Mars
While you're viewing the site, spin some discs by the Replacements. Mars was their drummer before his painting career.
Posted By: Paul - Fri Aug 01, 2008 -
Comments (1)
Category: Art, Literature, Fantasy, Music
Get Your Geek On
Posted By: Paul - Fri Aug 01, 2008 -
Comments (3)
Category: Business, Products, Conventions, Geeks, Nerds and Pointdexters, Hospitals, Literature, Fantasy, Science Fiction, Pop Culture, Comics
Chuck’s Hand-Picked Overnight Weird News for Friday
The most exciting thing that ever happened to a turtle researcherThe guy monitoring the daily habits of Turtle No. 72 in Washington, D.C.,'s Rock Creek Park for the last 7 yrs, mostly via the radio transmitter on 72's back, but every few days paying a personal visit, came upon a farm of 10 marijuana plants grown deep in the brush by a local college student, and Park Police are on the case. Washington Post
Comments 'marijuana_turtle'
Full-time job, car, laptop, wi-fi, cell phone, PayPal account, Netflix subscription—everything except a home
Tom Sepa is not "homeless"; he's an "urban outdoorsman." San Francisco's housing is just too expensive, so he pitches a tent on the back trails of Golden Gate Park most nights so he can stash away a bit of nest egg from his telemarketing job. How to avoid the Park cops? "The whole thing is stealth. I am in after dark and back out before dawn. I do no drinking, make no noise, and always leave it cleaner than when I went in." San Francisco Chronicle
Comments 'urban_outdoorsman'
Your Daily Loser
Gibson Cook, 56, another one of those scrap metal thieves, went foraging for copper at a landfill in Dillon, S.C., crawled under a large container, and got stuck. No one came along for 12 hours. Associated Press via Yahoo [photo of Cook, still trapped]
Comments 'gibson_cook'
Your Daily Jury Duty
[no fair examining the evidence; verdict must be based on mugshot only]
Donroy Merrival might be guilty of willful injury if indeed he did bite off a guy's nose in a fight. (Actually, you could probably render a verdict just as well from Merrival's first name.) Associated Press via Detroit Free Press
Comments 'donroy_merrival'
More Things to Worry About on Friday
The estranged husband whose face was a "waffle" pattern had no trouble convincing police that his wife had, indeed, beaten him with a meat tenderizer . . . . . "Naked man impaled on rusty metal spike" (yet another instance of a man looking, ineptly, for some outdoor privacy to attend to a nature's call) . . . . . Minor-party politico Kishor Samrite, who helped Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in the recent elections in India, decided to thank a Hindu goddess for the victory, which means, as usual, animals paying the price (in this case, 200 sacrificed goats and 4 sacrificed bulls) . . . . . And in Chuck's opinion, not much else went on yesterday (except for that guy who went nuts on the Greyhound bus in Manitoba and spontaneously stabbed his seatmate to death and severed his head, but then, you all already know that, 'cause the story's everywhere now). Today's Newsrangers: Michael Ravnitzky, Robb Ludwig, Scott Langill, Neil Gimon, Dan Peerless, Geoffrey Megargee, Perry Levin
Comments 'worry_080801'
Posted By: Chuck - Fri Aug 01, 2008 -
Comments (0)
Category:
Skel-A-Mingos
Posted By: Alex - Fri Aug 01, 2008 -
Comments (1)
Category: Death, Products
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| Who We Are |
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| Alex Boese Alex is the creator and curator of the Museum of Hoaxes. He's also the author of various weird, non-fiction books such as Elephants on Acid. Paul Di Filippo Paul has been paid to put weird ideas into fictional form for over thirty years, in his career as a noted science fiction writer. He has recently begun blogging on many curious topics with three fellow writers at The Inferior 4+1. Chuck Shepherd Chuck is the purveyor of News of the Weird, the syndicated column which for decades has set the gold-standard for reporting on oddities and the bizarre. Our banner was drawn by the legendary underground cartoonist Rick Altergott. Contact Us |
