Profitable Litigation, Pumpkin Helmets, and the Woman Who Sleeps with Her Shotgun
News of the Weird Daily
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
Iraqi-American earns an easy $240,000
Raed Jarrar's ingenious plan in 2006: wear an inoffensive t-shirt with Arabic lettering to the gate for your JetBlue flight, thus scaring one or more passengers, then refuse on principle to change shirts, thus miss your flight [CORRECTION: He didn't miss the flight; he was forced to cover his shirt and was exiled to the back of the plane.] and sue JetBlue and two TSA people for profiling you. Finally, settle the case for $240k. (Bonus: The Arabic lettering, reading "We Will Not Be Silent," was also printed in English [but if the other passengers don't read Arabic, they don't know that the Arabic phrase is no worse than the English phrase].) Washington Post
Comments 'jarrar_jetblue'
New York appeals court makes it harder to sue for sidewalk injuries
The decision was based on the integrity of the evidence used to show that a certain sidewalk was in disrepair, upping the amount of work the plaintiff has to do before joining the roster of clumsy pedestrians who have looted New York City of $600 million in awards and settlements over the last 10 yrs. Buried Lede: For the last 25 yrs, trial lawyers have been contracting with mapping services to survey every sidewalk in the city (13,000 miles' worth), noting cracks, holes, and the like, just to make it easier to win lawsuits. New York Times
Comments 'newyork_sidewalks'
The higher up the intellectual ladder you go, the more articulate the weaseling
Neale Donald Walsch is way high-up, the author of a series of best-selling books, Conversations With God. He admits that he cribbed a cute little essay that came to him 10 yrs ago and began using it as his own, but when he put it online in December, the real author found it. It's so startling a story that if it had actually happened to you, you'd remember it vividly forever. But it never happened to Walsch; it happened to the original writer. Busted. "I am truly mystified and taken aback by this," he said. "I have told the story verbally so many times over the years that I had it memorized–and then, somewhere along the way, internalized it as my own experience." Yeah, that's the ticket . . internalized it. New York Times
Comments 'neale_walsch'
Roy Pearson lives on!
America's most optimistic litigator, D.C.'s Roy Pearson, filed yet another challenge to his continuing defeats to get the $54 million he thinks he deserves because a dry cleaner lost a pair of his pants. He was turned down by a panel of the District's highest court in December and is now asking for the entire court to reconsider the case. (Most lawyers know they won't get a better deal from the entire court than from the panel; of course, most lawyers know they won't get $54 million for a pair of pants.) Associated Press via MSNBC
Comments 'roy_pearson2'
More Things to Worry About
A Chinese speed-skater was banned from competition for a year for middle-fingering the audience, but this is actually a sign of the country's liberalism: The last athletes disciplined for poor sportsmanship (in 2006) were sent to military boot camp. Agence France-Presse via Yahoo
Must Be a Fargo Thing: A Fargo, N.D., woman accidentally fired her shotgun through her wall into her neighbor's apartment . . from her bed . . because she sleeps with her shotgun. Fargo Forum
Recurring Theme: 6-year-old sneaks the keys and tries to drive the family car (but only because he had just missed the school bus and didn't want to be late to class). Richmond Times-Dispatch
A 37-yr-old man was fatally beaten in Steamboat Springs, Colo., because he insisted on playing Margaritaville on the jukebox (so it's his own damn fault). Denver Post
In Nigeria, cyclists who can't afford helmets are "obeying" the new mandatory helmet law by slapping dried pumpkins over their heads. BBC News
OK, things slow down over the holidays, but still, it took officials in Paw Paw, Mich., three weeks to rule that the heart found in a car wash wasn't that of a human. Kalamazoo Gazette
It takes a big man to set up one of the biggest Christmas-lights displays in the neighborhood . . after he's had his electricity shut off and has illegally re-wired his house to steal power. WFTV (Orlando)
Comments on Things to Worry About?
Comments 'worry_090107'
Your Daily Loser
Samuel Randall, 27, was arrested in Chicago because he was driving the wrong way on a one-way street, at 3 p.m. That's when cops found $18,000 worth of illegal weed on him. Chicago Sun-Times via WBBM Radio
Comments 'samuel_randall'
People Whose Sex Lives Are Worse Than Yours
Take this guy, for instance (though they haven't caught him yet): He's broken into the Laneway Adult Shop in Cairns, Australia, twice now, and taken some money, but both times he also consummated relationships with blow-up dolls (and, as with all love-em-and-leave-em relationships, left'em a mess) (but the mess included his DNA). Cairns Post [with photo of one of the jilted lovers]
Comments 'cairns_sexdoll'
Your Daily Jury Duty
["In America, a person is presumed innocent until the mug shot is released"]
The great character actor Mr. Rip Torn was accused of possibly being under the influence of alcohol while driving. You can either use that-there piece of equipment to measure his blood-alcohol level scientifically, or you can look right here. Register Citizen (Torrington, Conn.)
Comments 'rip_torn'
Today's Newsrangers: Gerald Sacks, Tony Punko, Paul Vogt, Tom Barker, Peter Wardley
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
Iraqi-American earns an easy $240,000
Raed Jarrar's ingenious plan in 2006: wear an inoffensive t-shirt with Arabic lettering to the gate for your JetBlue flight, thus scaring one or more passengers, then refuse on principle to change shirts, thus miss your flight [CORRECTION: He didn't miss the flight; he was forced to cover his shirt and was exiled to the back of the plane.] and sue JetBlue and two TSA people for profiling you. Finally, settle the case for $240k. (Bonus: The Arabic lettering, reading "We Will Not Be Silent," was also printed in English [but if the other passengers don't read Arabic, they don't know that the Arabic phrase is no worse than the English phrase].) Washington Post
Comments 'jarrar_jetblue'
New York appeals court makes it harder to sue for sidewalk injuries
The decision was based on the integrity of the evidence used to show that a certain sidewalk was in disrepair, upping the amount of work the plaintiff has to do before joining the roster of clumsy pedestrians who have looted New York City of $600 million in awards and settlements over the last 10 yrs. Buried Lede: For the last 25 yrs, trial lawyers have been contracting with mapping services to survey every sidewalk in the city (13,000 miles' worth), noting cracks, holes, and the like, just to make it easier to win lawsuits. New York Times
Comments 'newyork_sidewalks'
The higher up the intellectual ladder you go, the more articulate the weaseling
Neale Donald Walsch is way high-up, the author of a series of best-selling books, Conversations With God. He admits that he cribbed a cute little essay that came to him 10 yrs ago and began using it as his own, but when he put it online in December, the real author found it. It's so startling a story that if it had actually happened to you, you'd remember it vividly forever. But it never happened to Walsch; it happened to the original writer. Busted. "I am truly mystified and taken aback by this," he said. "I have told the story verbally so many times over the years that I had it memorized–and then, somewhere along the way, internalized it as my own experience." Yeah, that's the ticket . . internalized it. New York Times
Comments 'neale_walsch'
Roy Pearson lives on!
America's most optimistic litigator, D.C.'s Roy Pearson, filed yet another challenge to his continuing defeats to get the $54 million he thinks he deserves because a dry cleaner lost a pair of his pants. He was turned down by a panel of the District's highest court in December and is now asking for the entire court to reconsider the case. (Most lawyers know they won't get a better deal from the entire court than from the panel; of course, most lawyers know they won't get $54 million for a pair of pants.) Associated Press via MSNBC
Comments 'roy_pearson2'
More Things to Worry About
A Chinese speed-skater was banned from competition for a year for middle-fingering the audience, but this is actually a sign of the country's liberalism: The last athletes disciplined for poor sportsmanship (in 2006) were sent to military boot camp. Agence France-Presse via Yahoo
Must Be a Fargo Thing: A Fargo, N.D., woman accidentally fired her shotgun through her wall into her neighbor's apartment . . from her bed . . because she sleeps with her shotgun. Fargo Forum
Recurring Theme: 6-year-old sneaks the keys and tries to drive the family car (but only because he had just missed the school bus and didn't want to be late to class). Richmond Times-Dispatch
A 37-yr-old man was fatally beaten in Steamboat Springs, Colo., because he insisted on playing Margaritaville on the jukebox (so it's his own damn fault). Denver Post
In Nigeria, cyclists who can't afford helmets are "obeying" the new mandatory helmet law by slapping dried pumpkins over their heads. BBC News
OK, things slow down over the holidays, but still, it took officials in Paw Paw, Mich., three weeks to rule that the heart found in a car wash wasn't that of a human. Kalamazoo Gazette
It takes a big man to set up one of the biggest Christmas-lights displays in the neighborhood . . after he's had his electricity shut off and has illegally re-wired his house to steal power. WFTV (Orlando)
Comments on Things to Worry About?
Comments 'worry_090107'
Your Daily Loser
Samuel Randall, 27, was arrested in Chicago because he was driving the wrong way on a one-way street, at 3 p.m. That's when cops found $18,000 worth of illegal weed on him. Chicago Sun-Times via WBBM Radio
Comments 'samuel_randall'
People Whose Sex Lives Are Worse Than Yours
Take this guy, for instance (though they haven't caught him yet): He's broken into the Laneway Adult Shop in Cairns, Australia, twice now, and taken some money, but both times he also consummated relationships with blow-up dolls (and, as with all love-em-and-leave-em relationships, left'em a mess) (but the mess included his DNA). Cairns Post [with photo of one of the jilted lovers]
Comments 'cairns_sexdoll'
Your Daily Jury Duty
["In America, a person is presumed innocent until the mug shot is released"]
The great character actor Mr. Rip Torn was accused of possibly being under the influence of alcohol while driving. You can either use that-there piece of equipment to measure his blood-alcohol level scientifically, or you can look right here. Register Citizen (Torrington, Conn.)
Comments 'rip_torn'
Today's Newsrangers: Gerald Sacks, Tony Punko, Paul Vogt, Tom Barker, Peter Wardley
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