“Teacup” Hedgehogs and Floating Rafts of Snot, Plus the Week’s Least Justifiable Homicide
News of the Weird / Pro Edition
October 12, 2009
(mystifying and/or derisory news from October 3-10)
Politics for Keeps in the F State
In Broward County, Fla., the Republican Club held its meeting at a gun range, and one U.S. House candidate wrote the incumbent Democrat's initials on the target he was firing at. Then a Democratic former Broward official, who is also the father of the current county mayor, showed up at his daughter's home waving a gun (because he's running for office again, and his daughter had declined to endorse him). Pennsylvania has grim issues, also: Two mayors and a city councilman on November ballots aren't in danger . . but only because they're already dead. South Florida Sun-Sentinel /// Miami Herald /// Associated Press via PennLive.com
If 80-yr-olds Are Running Marathons, You're Gonna Need Some Catheters
An 81-yr-old runner in Minnesota made it to Mile 21 before his urethra totally failed him. As he lamented his condition at a race station, hating to quit but needing to get to a hospital before his bladder burst, a bystander said he just happened to have a catheter out in the car. Our man went off and self-administered, "evacuated," and finished the race. St. Paul Pioneer Press
Tattoos Are for Sissies; You Want to Show Commitment
Many of Cape Town (South Africa)'s ethnic "coloured" (mixed-race) teenagers have somehow convinced themselves that it's really cool to have their upper front teeth pulled. Identity, maybe. Community pride. (They're oppressed so it's politically incorrect to call them "idiots.") The rest of South Africa, who uncoolly retain their upper front teeth, started the rumor that coloureds do it to facilitate oral sex, so maybe they've got that going for them. Daily Telegraph (London)
All You Need to Know About Australia
Local residents, worried that visitors for the Bathurst 1000 auto race would get wasted and cause trouble, cracked down, imposing disturbingly onerous restrictions, such as a daily per-person maximum of 24 cans of beer. Reuters via Yahoo
GPS Comes of Age
Two more breakthroughs made possible by global satellite signals: (1) The cleanup of the Hanford (Wash.) nuclear reservation will go somewhat faster because now helicopters can pinpoint exact locations (among the site's 500-plus square miles) of radioactive rabbit poop that has to be scooped up from rabbits that have eaten contaminated plants. (2) Now, finally, at long last, copulators can upload the precise locations of their most recent sessions, forming a global database of . . what? Seattle Post-Intelligencer /// Daily Telegraph /// IJustMadeLove.com
UK Nat'l Health Service Follies
(1) Worried that you might get a staph infection if you have to go in the hospital? At Tayside Hospital in Scotland, the patients have to worry about bats. (2) Manchester Royal Infirmary sent this woman home five different times even though she had classic symptoms of ovarian cancer, which doctors had diagnosed as trapped flatus. (3) Mr. Torron Eeles says he's kinda got a problem and is gettin' stiffed by NHS. The Courier (Tayside) /// Daily Mail /// Daily Telegraph [disturbing photograph]
Freak Watch
There may or may not be such things as Bigfoot or the Loch Ness Monster, but here is one genuine oddity: a predatory female serial pedophile who works alone (i.e., not a love-struck schoolteacher or a woman who merely tags along on her husband's or boyfriend's perversions). Daily Telegraph (London)
The Mind Has Some Terribly Wasteful Things
UCLA researchers have happened upon neurons that appear to be activated by, and only by, references to certain celebrities. That is, this neuron or that, when exposed to almost any sort of representation of, say, Britney Spears, or Oprah, would perk up. It's different for all of us. Can't be explained and might get really embarrassing. Wall Street Journal
People With Worse Sex Lives Than You
Jeffrey Graybill, 40, at least found a good career match: He pretended to be a fertility doctor, apparently to make it easier to fondle men, in the guise of building up a sperm bank. KPHO-TV (Phoenix)
Jury Duty
[In America, you're presumed innocent . . . until the mug shot is released]
How does funeral director James Patton, 38, of Houston, Tex., look? Could he have been playing doctor-games with a couple of dead bodies, say, trawling his penis along their naked corpses? KRIV-TV (Houston)
American Sub-Prime
Visiting Jersey City, N.J., overnight? Park your Ferrari on the street? Leave your $100k Audemars Piguet wristwatch inside? (It was a 10-yr-old car so only the watch got boosted.) Jersey Journal
Four shots point-blank from a .357 magnum because . . the yard-weeder inadvertently sprayed grass cuttings on him. "I take pride in my appearance," said the shooter. "I did not appreciate that." Prosecutor: "He did nothing to you, did he?" Lankward Harrington, 25: "He got grass on me. That was something." Washington Post
Mikey Weinstein, a military lawyer from the Reagan White House, is suing Gordon Klingenschmitt, a former military chaplain, to get Rev. K to stop urging Jesus's wrath on Weinstein. Rev. K says he would never pray evil upon his enemies, but "I pray the Psalm that [Weinstein's] days are few." Dallas Morning News
Circular Economics: Psychics in the Phoenix area reported that, surprisingly, they are weathering the recession . . because of new customers . . seeking financial advice, e.g., "Do I need to do a short sale on my house?" Arizona Republic
Adam Manning, 30, took his pregnant girlfriend to the hospital as she went into labor, but then, as the mother of his child was being comforted through her moaning by a nurse, Adam hit on the nurse (compliments on looks, a neck massage, a feel-copping). He was arrested and missed the birth. Salt Lake Tribune
Below The Fold
Should've Been Carrying Wednesday Night: Meleanie Hain, 33, who made headlines last yr by open-carrying a loaded pistol at her daughter's soccer game (legal in Pennsylvania), fought Wednesday night with her husband, who apparently murdered her and then killed himself. Express-Times (Easton, Pa.)
A 13-yr-old boy in Manchester, England, became a poppa when his 16-yr-old girlfriend gave birth, which is not all that weird these days, but listen to the boy's dad: "[My son] is taking his responsibilities very seriously." "He is mature for a 13-yr-old and knows what he's about." "[He] will make a good father." Daily Telegraph
At the Strathendrick Golf Club in Drymen, Scotland, a duffer nailed his mother-in-law in the back of the head with his tee shot. She's on to that 19th Hole in the Sky. Daily Mail
"This is the last straw," said one art historian at the Louvre in Paris. "This is the pinnacle of . . . deficient gastronomy and very unpleasant odours . . .." A McDonald's will open in November a few yards from the art mecca's museum. Daily Telegraph
Reducing our dependence on foreign . . um . . marijuana: We now produce about half of what we consume, and los carteles don't like that a bit. Washington Post
Global warming is being blamed for the increasing size and frequency of the patches of snot-like . . um . . snot . . glazing several coasts in the Mediterranean. National Geographic News
Same Old Same Old
Yet another prostitution bust of an Asian woman named Mi Suk (Mi Suk Yang of Jonesboro, Ga.) Forsyth County News
Yet another gunshot deflected by, well, not a belt buckle, not a bra clasp, not a pocket Bible, but an implanted defibrillator. St. Paul Pioneer Press
Yet another clumsy man with a gun shoots himself (Timothy Davis, 22, Fort Myers, Fla.). (Bonus: bullet in the butt!) News-Press
Eyewitness News
Pets on Parade: pygmy hedgehogs and pygmy . . pigs. And Boomer the dog, with a glandular problem, drinking water out of the sink while standing on the floor on all fours. And speaking of accessory-pets, here's a Daily Mail spread on little Suri Cruise and her $2m wardrobe. Daily Mail (London) /// Daily Telegraph (London) /// Associated Press via St. Louis Post-Dispatch /// Daily Mail
Readers' Choice
Jackie Knott, 37, made all the papers last week when she was arrested for hauling her 13-yr-old in a cardboard box atop her van, but she stayed defiant: The box was too big for the van, she explained, so naturally it had to go on top, and---hel-lo!--someone had to be up there to hold it down. WAAY-TV (Huntsville, Ala.)
Air India announced that there was never a safety problem on that flight from Dubai to Delhi . . just because at least one flight attendant and one pilot were exchanging punches in-flight. BBC News
Two drunken yobs, participating in the Welsh bar sport of transvestite-bashing, started to beat up on two flamers, except they weren't flamers at all but cage fighters who happened to be costumed up for the evening, and the incident was over pretty quickly. (The nickname of one of the fighters is "Lights Out.") Daily Mail [with video] /// BBC News [follow-up video]
Newsrangers
Sam Gaines, Amber Donges, Hal Dunham, Milford Sprecher, David Bonan, Michael Ravnitzky, Brandon Brown, Peter Hine, Judy Stevens, Mack Gafford, Jenny Aus, James Morris, Tom Barker, Brian Cunningham, Kathryn Wood, Chris Wheeler, and Perry Levin, and the News of the Weird Board of Editorial Advisors.
October 12, 2009
(mystifying and/or derisory news from October 3-10)
Politics for Keeps in the F State
In Broward County, Fla., the Republican Club held its meeting at a gun range, and one U.S. House candidate wrote the incumbent Democrat's initials on the target he was firing at. Then a Democratic former Broward official, who is also the father of the current county mayor, showed up at his daughter's home waving a gun (because he's running for office again, and his daughter had declined to endorse him). Pennsylvania has grim issues, also: Two mayors and a city councilman on November ballots aren't in danger . . but only because they're already dead. South Florida Sun-Sentinel /// Miami Herald /// Associated Press via PennLive.com
If 80-yr-olds Are Running Marathons, You're Gonna Need Some Catheters
An 81-yr-old runner in Minnesota made it to Mile 21 before his urethra totally failed him. As he lamented his condition at a race station, hating to quit but needing to get to a hospital before his bladder burst, a bystander said he just happened to have a catheter out in the car. Our man went off and self-administered, "evacuated," and finished the race. St. Paul Pioneer Press
Tattoos Are for Sissies; You Want to Show Commitment
Many of Cape Town (South Africa)'s ethnic "coloured" (mixed-race) teenagers have somehow convinced themselves that it's really cool to have their upper front teeth pulled. Identity, maybe. Community pride. (They're oppressed so it's politically incorrect to call them "idiots.") The rest of South Africa, who uncoolly retain their upper front teeth, started the rumor that coloureds do it to facilitate oral sex, so maybe they've got that going for them. Daily Telegraph (London)
All You Need to Know About Australia
Local residents, worried that visitors for the Bathurst 1000 auto race would get wasted and cause trouble, cracked down, imposing disturbingly onerous restrictions, such as a daily per-person maximum of 24 cans of beer. Reuters via Yahoo
GPS Comes of Age
Two more breakthroughs made possible by global satellite signals: (1) The cleanup of the Hanford (Wash.) nuclear reservation will go somewhat faster because now helicopters can pinpoint exact locations (among the site's 500-plus square miles) of radioactive rabbit poop that has to be scooped up from rabbits that have eaten contaminated plants. (2) Now, finally, at long last, copulators can upload the precise locations of their most recent sessions, forming a global database of . . what? Seattle Post-Intelligencer /// Daily Telegraph /// IJustMadeLove.com
UK Nat'l Health Service Follies
(1) Worried that you might get a staph infection if you have to go in the hospital? At Tayside Hospital in Scotland, the patients have to worry about bats. (2) Manchester Royal Infirmary sent this woman home five different times even though she had classic symptoms of ovarian cancer, which doctors had diagnosed as trapped flatus. (3) Mr. Torron Eeles says he's kinda got a problem and is gettin' stiffed by NHS. The Courier (Tayside) /// Daily Mail /// Daily Telegraph [disturbing photograph]
Freak Watch
There may or may not be such things as Bigfoot or the Loch Ness Monster, but here is one genuine oddity: a predatory female serial pedophile who works alone (i.e., not a love-struck schoolteacher or a woman who merely tags along on her husband's or boyfriend's perversions). Daily Telegraph (London)
The Mind Has Some Terribly Wasteful Things
UCLA researchers have happened upon neurons that appear to be activated by, and only by, references to certain celebrities. That is, this neuron or that, when exposed to almost any sort of representation of, say, Britney Spears, or Oprah, would perk up. It's different for all of us. Can't be explained and might get really embarrassing. Wall Street Journal
People With Worse Sex Lives Than You
Jeffrey Graybill, 40, at least found a good career match: He pretended to be a fertility doctor, apparently to make it easier to fondle men, in the guise of building up a sperm bank. KPHO-TV (Phoenix)
Jury Duty
[In America, you're presumed innocent . . . until the mug shot is released]
How does funeral director James Patton, 38, of Houston, Tex., look? Could he have been playing doctor-games with a couple of dead bodies, say, trawling his penis along their naked corpses? KRIV-TV (Houston)
American Sub-Prime
Visiting Jersey City, N.J., overnight? Park your Ferrari on the street? Leave your $100k Audemars Piguet wristwatch inside? (It was a 10-yr-old car so only the watch got boosted.) Jersey Journal
Four shots point-blank from a .357 magnum because . . the yard-weeder inadvertently sprayed grass cuttings on him. "I take pride in my appearance," said the shooter. "I did not appreciate that." Prosecutor: "He did nothing to you, did he?" Lankward Harrington, 25: "He got grass on me. That was something." Washington Post
Mikey Weinstein, a military lawyer from the Reagan White House, is suing Gordon Klingenschmitt, a former military chaplain, to get Rev. K to stop urging Jesus's wrath on Weinstein. Rev. K says he would never pray evil upon his enemies, but "I pray the Psalm that [Weinstein's] days are few." Dallas Morning News
Circular Economics: Psychics in the Phoenix area reported that, surprisingly, they are weathering the recession . . because of new customers . . seeking financial advice, e.g., "Do I need to do a short sale on my house?" Arizona Republic
Adam Manning, 30, took his pregnant girlfriend to the hospital as she went into labor, but then, as the mother of his child was being comforted through her moaning by a nurse, Adam hit on the nurse (compliments on looks, a neck massage, a feel-copping). He was arrested and missed the birth. Salt Lake Tribune
Below The Fold
Should've Been Carrying Wednesday Night: Meleanie Hain, 33, who made headlines last yr by open-carrying a loaded pistol at her daughter's soccer game (legal in Pennsylvania), fought Wednesday night with her husband, who apparently murdered her and then killed himself. Express-Times (Easton, Pa.)
A 13-yr-old boy in Manchester, England, became a poppa when his 16-yr-old girlfriend gave birth, which is not all that weird these days, but listen to the boy's dad: "[My son] is taking his responsibilities very seriously." "He is mature for a 13-yr-old and knows what he's about." "[He] will make a good father." Daily Telegraph
At the Strathendrick Golf Club in Drymen, Scotland, a duffer nailed his mother-in-law in the back of the head with his tee shot. She's on to that 19th Hole in the Sky. Daily Mail
"This is the last straw," said one art historian at the Louvre in Paris. "This is the pinnacle of . . . deficient gastronomy and very unpleasant odours . . .." A McDonald's will open in November a few yards from the art mecca's museum. Daily Telegraph
Reducing our dependence on foreign . . um . . marijuana: We now produce about half of what we consume, and los carteles don't like that a bit. Washington Post
Global warming is being blamed for the increasing size and frequency of the patches of snot-like . . um . . snot . . glazing several coasts in the Mediterranean. National Geographic News
Same Old Same Old
Yet another prostitution bust of an Asian woman named Mi Suk (Mi Suk Yang of Jonesboro, Ga.) Forsyth County News
Yet another gunshot deflected by, well, not a belt buckle, not a bra clasp, not a pocket Bible, but an implanted defibrillator. St. Paul Pioneer Press
Yet another clumsy man with a gun shoots himself (Timothy Davis, 22, Fort Myers, Fla.). (Bonus: bullet in the butt!) News-Press
Eyewitness News
Pets on Parade: pygmy hedgehogs and pygmy . . pigs. And Boomer the dog, with a glandular problem, drinking water out of the sink while standing on the floor on all fours. And speaking of accessory-pets, here's a Daily Mail spread on little Suri Cruise and her $2m wardrobe. Daily Mail (London) /// Daily Telegraph (London) /// Associated Press via St. Louis Post-Dispatch /// Daily Mail
Readers' Choice
Jackie Knott, 37, made all the papers last week when she was arrested for hauling her 13-yr-old in a cardboard box atop her van, but she stayed defiant: The box was too big for the van, she explained, so naturally it had to go on top, and---hel-lo!--someone had to be up there to hold it down. WAAY-TV (Huntsville, Ala.)
Air India announced that there was never a safety problem on that flight from Dubai to Delhi . . just because at least one flight attendant and one pilot were exchanging punches in-flight. BBC News
Two drunken yobs, participating in the Welsh bar sport of transvestite-bashing, started to beat up on two flamers, except they weren't flamers at all but cage fighters who happened to be costumed up for the evening, and the incident was over pretty quickly. (The nickname of one of the fighters is "Lights Out.") Daily Mail [with video] /// BBC News [follow-up video]
Newsrangers
Sam Gaines, Amber Donges, Hal Dunham, Milford Sprecher, David Bonan, Michael Ravnitzky, Brandon Brown, Peter Hine, Judy Stevens, Mack Gafford, Jenny Aus, James Morris, Tom Barker, Brian Cunningham, Kathryn Wood, Chris Wheeler, and Perry Levin, and the News of the Weird Board of Editorial Advisors.
Comments
80 the new too damned healthy to think about!
Broken Arm Didn't I just hear some expert on CBS praising socialized medicine? (He obviously didn't make it here either.)
Marine Snot Yet another reason why we need eat more beef in an effort to reduce the amount of cow-fart that's causing global warming!
Shot in the Butt I read the story and am having a REALLY, REALLY hard time believing it. The guy had a round chambered in an automatic and the thing was cocked while laying in his t-shirt drawer???????
Mutant Dog Pooper-Scooper vs Scoop-Shovel
Jackie Knott She's seriously knott playing with a full deck. The knott's slipped and the boat has floated away.
Broken Arm Didn't I just hear some expert on CBS praising socialized medicine? (He obviously didn't make it here either.)
Marine Snot Yet another reason why we need eat more beef in an effort to reduce the amount of cow-fart that's causing global warming!
Shot in the Butt I read the story and am having a REALLY, REALLY hard time believing it. The guy had a round chambered in an automatic and the thing was cocked while laying in his t-shirt drawer???????
Mutant Dog Pooper-Scooper vs Scoop-Shovel
Jackie Knott She's seriously knott playing with a full deck. The knott's slipped and the boat has floated away.
Posted by Expat47 in Athens, Greece on 10/12/09 at 10:27 AM
"copulators can upload the precise locations of their most recent sessions" -- does this include altitude as well as longitude and latitude? (Inquiring Mile-High Club members want to know....)
"The box was too big for the van, she explained, so naturally it had to go on top, and---hel-lo!--someone had to be up there to hold it down...." -- Ah, but you see, she was safety-conscious: the box was also tied to the car with a clothes hanger!
Hey! I finally bit the bullet and signed in to Weird Universe. (Been here since the beginning. Just not an early-joiner type.)
"The box was too big for the van, she explained, so naturally it had to go on top, and---hel-lo!--someone had to be up there to hold it down...." -- Ah, but you see, she was safety-conscious: the box was also tied to the car with a clothes hanger!
Hey! I finally bit the bullet and signed in to Weird Universe. (Been here since the beginning. Just not an early-joiner type.)
Posted by Nat Strainer on 10/12/09 at 04:34 PM
don't ask me how i ended up with that line twice. :red:
Posted by Patty in Ohio, USA on 10/12/09 at 09:31 PM
actually greg my favorite line from that post was
trannies 1 homophobes 0
but the yu line comes in 2nd. 😉
trannies 1 homophobes 0
but the yu line comes in 2nd. 😉
Posted by Patty in Ohio, USA on 10/14/09 at 04:13 PM
if that's why then perhaps they should build a new hospital and move the patients. bats, ick!
Posted by Patty in Ohio, USA on 10/20/09 at 07:50 AM
Commenting is not available in this channel entry.
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