The Alkoholomat

Don't drive drunk on the holiday--or any day! The penalty could be worse even than ending up as an item in NOTW!

Posted By: Paul - Mon Jul 04, 2016 - Comments (2)
Category: Humor, Inventions, 1960s, Europe, Alcohol, Cars

News of the Weird (July 3, 2016)

News of the Weird
Weirdnuz.M482, July 3, 2016
Copyright 2016 by Chuck Shepherd. All rights reserved.

Lead Story

Long-Time Recurring Theme Peaks: In May, an apparently-devout woman named Katy Vasquez of Winter Park, Fla., posted a sincerely-written entry on Facebook (and told Huffington Post in an interview) that she had just seen a "sign from God"--a cross--as a smudge in her infant's soiled diaper. "I prayed to God for a sign that everything would be okay," she gushed to the reporter. "It might not be the prettiest sign, but he put it where he knew I'd see it." (Hence, News of the Weird retires the category begun in the 1980s with Jesus in a rust stain on an abandoned refrigerator.) [Huffington Post, 5-20-2016]

Fine Points of the Law

To their great surprise, Sophie Scafidi and friends, on an outing in Hampton Beach, N.H., in June, learned that a man spying on and photographing them through a camera lens hidden in a Gatorade bottle painted black was not violating any law. Although the lens was rigged to the man's phone, which contained beach photos, including some of children, police informed Scafidi that even surreptitious photography in sleazy circumstances, as long as done on public property, was legal--and that the only law broken in the incident was by the person who snatched the "camera" to show police. [WBZ-TV (Boston), 6-7-2016]

A court in Canberra, Australia, found Wesley King not guilty of a 2014 burglary despite his DNA's having been found at the crime scene--on underpants containing his fresh feces. Wrote Chief Justice Helen Murrell in June: There is a "reasonable possibility" that the burglar was someone else who was wearing unwashed underwear that had previously been worn by the accused. (Thus, she found King not guilty of all charges.) [Australian Broadcasting Corp. News, 6-15-2016]

In June, a federal appeals court revived Adrian King's lawsuit against the Huttonsville Correctional Center in West Virginia for emotional distress and invasion of privacy in forcing him into surgery to remove the marbles he had implanted in his penis before he went to prison. King did not allege that he misses the marbles but only that he had chosen body-modification and that the surgery was against his will, causing pain upon touch (or whenever it gets cold, or rains or snows). Prison officials initially ordered the surgery because it was unclear that the objects were not contraband. [Reuters, 6-7-2016]

Weird Science

Medical Daily, in a May review of recent cases, noted progress in dealing with Cotard's Syndrome--a disorder that leads patients to believe they have no blood or vital body parts--or feeling as if they are dead (or may as well be). Studies show one in about 200 psychiatric patients exhibit the symptoms, and one doctor, describing a brain scan of his patient, said brain activity resembled that of a person in a coma or under anesthesia. Cotard's, also known as Walking Corpse Syndrome, leads patients to thus avoid eating or bathing (asking themselves, why bother?). [Medical Daily, 5-25-2016]

Awwwww: The Sacramento (Calif.) Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals put out a call for help in April after stray kittens were found dumped in a yard, with only two still alive but nearly blind with eye infections and needing animal blood for a serum that might save the eyes. The call was "answered" by the rescue dog Jemmie. After Jemmie's blood "donation" (not a transfusion, since the blood went only to make the serum), vets reported saving one eye of one of the kittens, earning Jemmie a "special" reward. (Said vet Sarah Varanini, "There's nothing in life [Jemmie] likes more than kittens.") [KOVR-TX (Sacramento), 4-6-2016]

Recurring Themes: Even though extraordinarily rare, two people recently reported Foreign Accent Syndrome after their brain traumas apparently caused crossing of cranial "wires." (1) "J.C.," 50, was described in the journal Cortex as an energetic Italian who, after a brain injury, inexplicably speaks constantly in "emphatic, error-prone French." (2) Six months ago, Lisa Alamia of Rosenberg, Tex., awoke from surgery inexplicably speaking in a British accent (particularly confusing her family and friends since she previously spoke not so much "English" as "Texan"). Medical experts cited by CBS News reported that fewer than 100 people worldwide have ever been diagnosed with Foreign Accent Syndrome. [Washington Post, 6-3-2016] [CBS News, 6-22-2016]

Redneck Chronicles

At the monthly pro wrestling show in Ringgold, Ga., in June, Patricia Crowe, 59--apparently having had enough of "bad guy" Paul Lee, reportedly jumped into the ring to rescue "good guy" Iron Mann, whom Lee had "tied up" and been beating with a chair. First, she cut Mann loose with her knife and then pulled a loaded handgun on Lee (and was eventually arrested by sheriff's deputies). Crowe admitted that Lee's earlier "mean" banter with ringside patrons had unnerved her, especially when he told Crowe to sit her "toothless self back down." [NorthwestGeorgiaNews.com (Rome, Ga.), 6-8-2016]

Compelling Explanations

(1) A former Malaysian legislator (Mr. S. Manikavasagam), who was charged in June with taking a bribe worth about US$7,300 from a contractor, claimed innocense--that somehow a package of money was thrown into his car as he drove down a city street. (2) A woman in Goldsboro, N.C., acquired a freezer from her neighbor several months ago but said she hadn't looked inside until May, when she discovered parts of a dead body (and called authorities).
She said the neighbor had discouraged her from opening the freezer because "a church" was using it as a "time capsule." [Straits Times (Singapore), 6-18-2016] [WNCN-TV (Raleigh, N.C.), 6-2-2016]

Government in Action

The Illinois secretary of state stopped mailing reminders about license-plate renewal deadlines in October because his office said the state could no longer afford the $450,000 a month mailing cost (thus saving taxpayers $3.6 million so far). The Belleville (Ill.) News-Democrat and the Associated Press reported in June that the state has collected (not surprisingly!) $5.24 million more in the resultant "late fees" people had to pay on their license-plate renewals than it had collected the year before the reminders stopped. (A proposal for a 30-day grace period for expired plates failed in the the just-concluded legislative session.) [Belleville News-Democrat, 6-23-2016]

Drugs--Is There Anything They Can't Do?

University of Georgia student Benjamin Abele, 22, was finally subdued by four police officers on May 29th after he had run naked down an Athens, Ga., street and leaped into the gooey, malodorous back end of a garbage truck, wallowing in the slimy liquid that pools under the gunk (hindering arrest), and then attempting to burrow further into the filthiness to somehow "escape." Two Taser shots had no effect, and he was identified as high on PCP. [Athens Banner-Herald, 6-3-2016]

Meanwhile, Overseas

(1) Voters in June in the village of Draguseni, Romania, elected Vasile Cepoi mayor--no, not the Vasile Cepoi who lost, or the other Vasile Cepoi who lost. The winner was the incumbent mayor Vasile Cepoi. (There was also a fourth candidate, who was not named Vasile Cepoi.) (2) In June, an "artificial intelligence" robot ("IR77") being taught to "avoid obstacles" while moving around the Promobot lab in Perm, Russia, apparently "learned" how to walk out the door undetected, causing a downtown traffic jam when its batteries died. Handlers modified the computer script, but IR77 "escaped" again several days later, and engineers said they may have to dismantle the program and start over. [New York Times, 6-14-2016] [RT.com (Moscow), 6-23-2016]

News of the Weird Classic (July 2012)

In testimony at an extortion trial in New York City in June [2012], Anthony Russo (alleged Colombo family associate) told prosecutors that a bloody mob war was narrowly averted recently. The Colombo family had learned that a new Staten Island pizza parlor (run by an alleged Bonanno family associate) was featuring pies that suspiciously resembled those of the top-rated, Colombo-promoted L&B Spumoni Gardens in Brooklyn, and thus, representatives of both families had to have one of those classic "sit-downs" (at a neutral site) to smooth things over. The "sit-down" took place, Russo said, at a Panera Bread cafe. [New York Daily News, 6-13-2012] (Breaking News: Two days ago, a co-owner of L&B Spumoni Gardens was gunned down in the back yard of his home.) CBS News

Thanks This Time to Gerald Sacks and to the News of the Weird Board of Editorial Advisors.

Posted By: Chuck - Sun Jul 03, 2016 - Comments (3)
Category:

People who have slipped on banana peels

I came across a 1927 case of a cliche come to life — a thief fleeing on foot who was caught because he accidentally slipped on a banana peel, which sent him sprawling.

New Cambria Leader - Nov 11, 1927

I figured that Chuck must have documented cases of people who have slipped on banana peels, and sure enough he has.

• 2011 — Ida Valentine, who filed a lawsuit against a California 99 Cents Only store after slipping on a banana peel and suffering a herniated disk. (posted here on WU)

• 2007 — Joyce Walker, awarded $4,110 for injuring her knee in a hospital restroom after slipping on a banana peel. (newsoftheweird.com)

• 2001 — Dorothy M. Ellis Williams, who sued a Quiktrip gas station after she slipped on a banana peel on the pavement outside their store and injured her back and knee. (google groups)

MythBusters has investigated whether you can really slip on a banana peel, and they concluded that although it's not as easy to do as the cliche might suggest, it's definitely possible. Older skins are more slippery. They also note that the cliche originated in the early 20th century after bananas first became a popular fruit, which led to numerous old skins littering sidewalks, and therefore numerous accidents.

Also, back in March 2016 it briefly became a fad among teenagers to take videos of themselves slipping on banana peels and then post the videos online. It was called the "banana peel challenge" #bananapeelchallenge. (Daily Mail)

Photo by Sandman_KK (via Flickr)

Posted By: Alex - Sun Jul 03, 2016 - Comments (5)
Category: Accidents, 1920s, Bananas

Crocodile Cage Diving

Yes or no?

Info here.

Posted By: Paul - Sun Jul 03, 2016 - Comments (2)
Category: Animals, Daredevils, Stuntpeople and Thrillseekers, Death, Australia

Mr Burger

Mr Burger, a Melbourne-based chain of hamburger restaurants, recently offered to give "free burgers for life" to anyone who would legally change their last name to "Burger." They specified that this meant seven burgers a week, for as long as the person maintained the name Burger. However, anyone whose last name already was Burger, was disqualified from getting the award.

But then the restaurant heard from the Government Solicitor's office (the agency responsible for processing name-change applications), informing them that it would not process any applications for people changing their name to "Burger" for the purpose of winning burgers, because such applications "are not in the spirit of the name-change process." So the competition was canned.

At least, that's the story Mr Burger is telling everyone. Perhaps the restaurant actually got cold feet, realizing too many people might have taken them up on their offer.

As far as last names go, Burger really isn't that bad. I might have done it, except I'm not interested in eating burgers every day for the rest of my life.

Posted By: Alex - Sat Jul 02, 2016 - Comments (3)
Category: Contests, Races and Other Competitions, Odd Names, Junk Food

Rock Hudson Sings Rod McKuen

Full playlist here.

Posted By: Paul - Sat Jul 02, 2016 - Comments (0)
Category: Ineptness, Crudity, Talentlessness, Kitsch, and Bad Art, Movies, 1970s, Cacophony, Dissonance, White Noise and Other Sonic Assaults

40-year-old Twinkie

At the George Stevens Academy in Blue Hill, Maine, a Twinkie has been kept on display for 40 years.

Back in 1976, chemistry teacher Roger Bennatti placed the Twinkie on top of the class blackboard in response to a student question about the legendary shelf-life of Twinkies. Eventually, the Twinkie was moved into a glass display box, but it remains at the school as a perpetual experiment on Twinkie immortality. More info: abc news.

Related Twinkie posts:
Twinkie Facts
Twinkies Art

Posted By: Alex - Fri Jul 01, 2016 - Comments (5)
Category: Food, Junk Food, Experiments

Mystery Illustration 23

What world-famous organization features this spokes-donkey?

The answer is here.

Posted By: Paul - Fri Jul 01, 2016 - Comments (4)
Category: Animals, Celebrities