Category: Strange News

The Smoking Gun has the Albuquerque Police report on the Runaway Bride — Runaway Bride’s Tall Tawdry Tale.

“I was raised a Southern Baptist and twice now a preacher has made reference to airlines pairing their pilots with one Christian (or saved) and one non-Christian (or un-saved). This is done on the pre-text that if and when the 2nd coming of Christ happens and the one Christian pilot is taken into the clouds with Christ, leaving the non-Christian pilot to supposedly land the plane safely alone. One preacher specifically mentioned American Airlines as having this policy.”

— Urban Legends, which responds.

110 people won second place in Powerball in March because they played the numbers they found in a fortune cookie. The payoff was $100,000 to $500,000 each. See the story in The New York Times.

Millions of diabetes sufferers throughout the world can thank the most unlikely of all medical heroes – our desert-dwelling Gila monster – for a new and effective drug to control their disease.

Just given federal approval, the drug – marketed as Byetta – is made from the saliva of the slow-moving, venomous lizard of the American Southwest.

The Arizona Daily Star

Whatever works, but NewMexiKen is wondering who exactly figured this out and how? Do you suppose kissing was involved?

Apostrophe boosters were in mourning at the University of Minnesota after it was decided to name a fancy new walkway the Scholars Walk, not the Scholar’s Walk. …

For weeks, the issue has bedeviled those at the university and beyond who care a great deal about such things. English professors, e-mailers from across the United States and even the Apostrophe Protection Society of England offered advice.

USA Today

Key quote: “Apostrophes would be out of control!” said board member Margaret Carlson.

NewMexiKen sees that the Time Travelers Convention mentioned here on NewMexiKen the other day is front page news in The New York Times today. Remember you saw it here first. (Of course, I suppose “first” doesn’t matter if we have time travel. Oh, well.)

Anyway, this time travel business got me thinking. The organizers talk about people from the future coming “back” to this convention. To me it would be a lot more interesting if the people from the future who have perfected time travel went back to the past and picked up some hitchhikers. You know, sort of like Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure.

Best line from The Times story: “Mr. Dorai and fellow organizers are the kind of people who transplant a snowblower engine into a sleeper sofa and drive the couch around Cambridge.”

“[H]istorians studying a newly discovered fragment of the oldest surviving copy of the New Testament announced that the legendary “mark of the beast” is probably 616, rather than 666.”

The Week Newsletter

Maybe Jennifer just ran on account of all the cheesy wedding gifts:

Among the items purchased at her registry: a cheese wire slicer ($9.99), a two-piece cheese server set (that’s one knife and one slicer for $29), a cheese server (that’s a tray, not a person — $35), a full cheese set (marble serving board, cheese knife, cracker tray — $49), a set of four cheese spreaders ($29), and, best of all, the mighty and essential “Cheese Dome” ($19).

Keith Olbermann

Visit Pictures of Pennies and scroll down.

And I think I have too much time on my hands.

The best thing about The Time Traveler Convention – May 7, 2005, is that there will be no need to repeat it. As soon as time travel is invented (and who is to say it won’t?) everyone will be able to attend this year’s conference.

Personally, I plan to attend several times, but later when the procrastinators have their conference.

From AP via The Santa Fe New Mexican:

ALBUQUERQUE — Georgia’s runaway bride arrived in this desert city on a Greyhound bus with nothing but the clothes on her back.

She left on a first-class airplane seat, carrying souvenirs and sporting a new wardrobe. The airfare was thanks to her family. The clothing and souvenirs were courtesy of the police and FBI agents she befriended.

Moved by the plight of Jennifer Wilbanks, authorities from several law enforcement agencies went beyond the call of duty — giving her a teddy bear, an FBI cap and polo shirt, a tote bag, meals and even a shoulder to cry on — to make her daylong stay here comfortable.

Hla Htay has three hungry infants to feed these days — a seven-month old baby boy and two Bengal tiger cubs.

Three times a day, the Myanmar housewife goes to the Yangon Zoo where she breastfeeds the hungry black-striped, orange-brown cubs rejected by their natural mother.

“The cubs are just like my babies,” Hla Htay told Fuji TV as one of the baby big cats suckled her breast.

Reuters.com

SAN ANTONIO, Texas (Reuters) – The leading candidate for mayor of San Antonio admitted on Thursday using his twin brother as a stand-in at a civic event without telling anyone it was not him.

Julian Castro, a 30-year-old city councilman, said brother Joaquin, his identical twin, rode for him in the annual River Parade through downtown San Antonio on Monday.

Reuters

Which one is the evil twin?

Umm, NewMexiKen does not wish to seem too cold and non-believing, but if there are people who think this is a religious apparition, I really don’t want to spend eternity with them.

Read about the Underpass Virgin at CNN.com.
 
 
 
 
 

A woman who said she found part of a human finger in a bowl of Wendy’s chili last month has been arrested and charged with larceny in connection with the incident, authorities said on Friday. …

Wendy’s International Inc., was “thrilled that an arrest has been made,” Tom Mueller, president of the company’s North American business, said in a statement.

The larceny charge, which originated in San Jose, was related to the finger incident, but the origin of the finger was still unknown, said San Jose police department spokesman Nick Muyo.

Reuters

SEOUL (Reuters) – Six elephants escaped from a zoo and roamed around the South Korean capital Wednesday, briefly crashing their way into a restaurant before being rounded up, police and zoo officials said.

The elephants were on a parade led by mahouts outside their enclosure inside Seoul Children’s Grand Park in the east of the city when one was apparently startled and bolted, a zoo official said by telephone.

The five others followed “because they have the tendency to do that,” the official said.

Reuters

NewMexiKen doesn’t know what elephants would order in a Korean restaurant, but in a Chinese place they should try the Kung Po Chicken.

BERLIN (Reuters) – The writings of Joseph Ratzinger, who became Pope Benedict XVI Tuesday, went straight in at number one on Germany’s book charts Wednesday, toppling the latest Harry Potter.

The German version of online retailer Amazon showed Ratzinger’s books in the top four spots and seven titles in the top 10.

Reuters

BERLIN (Reuters) – A Berlin couple plan to have their first baby at an art gallery, the gallery owner said on Saturday, confirming a newspaper report.

“It’s a gift to humanity, a once in a lifetime thing,” Bild newspaper quoted Winfried Witt, partner of mother-to-be Ramune Gele, as saying.

Johann Novak, manager of the DNA-Galerie in central Berlin, said the artistic couple wanted to challenge conventional norms.

“It’s a bit of test to see if society can cope,” he said in a telephone interview.

About 30 people are expected to attend the birth, scheduled for April 24. They would be told to come to the gallery as soon as the 27-year-old Gele’s contractions became regular, Witt was quoted as saying.

Reuters

SEATTLE (Reuters) – Seattle police launched an investigation on Friday to determine how a patient undergoing emergency heart surgery caught on fire at a local hospital in 2003.

The male patient, who was not identified, went up in flames after alcohol poured on his skin was ignited by a surgical instrument.

The patient died after the surgery but that was due to heart failure and not the fire, said Dr. Robert Caplan, medical quality director of Virginia Mason.

Caplan said fires are known to occur in operating rooms although they were extremely rare.

The two-year-old incident became publicly known after an anonymous letter sent to the media mentioned it as a sign of unsafe health care at the hospital, and said the patient burned to death.

Caplan strongly disputed its contents. “That letter is factually incorrect,” he said.

Reuters

A once secret plan to build a nuclear landmine ‘run’ by live chickens has gone on public display for the first time at The National Archives, Kew, as part of the acclaimed Secret State Exhibition.

Conceived during the Cold War, the seven tonne device was the size of small truck and was designed to be buried or submerged by a British Army retreating from Soviet forces. The landmine had a plutonium core surrounded by high explosive and would have been detonated by remote control or timer, causing mass destruction and contamination over a wide area to prevent subsequent enemy occupation.

Scientists working on the project realised that the bomb could fail in winter if vital components become too cold, so they explored ways of keeping the inner workings warm. One proposal put forward consisted of filling the casing of the nuke with live chickens, who would give off sufficient heat, prior to suffocating or starving to death, to keep the delicate explosive mechanism from freezing. Despite the potential importance of chickens to the project, the mine was codenamed ‘Blue Peacock’.

The National Archives United Kingdom

Link via Dave Barry

A Georgia high school will pay snitches up to $100 for tips about other students. Under the new policy, students will be paid $10 for information about a theft on campus; $50 for a tip about the use of beer, pot, or other drugs; and $100 for information about guns or other weapons. “It’s not that we feel there are any problems here,” said Model High School principal Glenn White. “It’s a proactive move.” Tipsters will not be paid, he said, if they’re involved in the crime.

The Week Newsletter

Sad, that it’s come to this. There were always plenty of snitches who worked for free in the past.

From BBC News:

A law letting people in Florida kill in self-defence on the street without first trying to flee an attacker has been passed by Florida politicians.

Florida law already allows people to shoot a potential attacker in their home, place of work or car.

But until now, courts insisted that anyone confronted in a public place should first try to run away.

To which NewMexiKen says, seal the state borders and arm them all.

Link via the always resourceful dangerousmeta!

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – A 5-year-old girl was arrested, cuffed and put in back of a police cruiser after an outburst at school where she threw books and boxes, kicked a teacher in the shins, smashed a candy dish, hit an assistant principal in the stomach and drew on the walls.

The students were counting jelly beans as part of a math exercise at Fairmount Park Elementary School when the little girl began acting silly. That’s when her teacher took away her jelly beans, outraging the child.

Minutes later, the 40-pound girl was in the back of a police cruiser, under arrest for battery. Her hands were bound with plastic ties, her ankles in handcuffs.

“I don’t want to go to jail,” she said moments after her arrest Monday.

No charges were filed and the girl went home with her mother.

From AP via Tallahassee Democrat

Pointer via Jesus’ General, who’s written Governor Bush disappointed that there was “No tazing, no clubbing, no chokeholds.”

Stereophonics’ singer Kelly Jones sparked an airport security alert last week when boarding a flight out of Londons Heathrow Airport for wearing a t-shirt with the print of a gun.

According to reports Kelly was about to board the flight when he found himself questioned after repeatedly setting off the metal detector, he was then hassled by a security guard for his t-shirt who claimed it would prevent him from flying at all.

“I beeped as I went through the metal detector”, Jones is quoted by website Contact Music as saying, “So they took my belt, watch and phone off.

“The guy takes me aside and says, ‘You know you’re not supposed to wear that.’ I said, ‘Not supposed to wear what?’ I honestly didn’t have a clue.”

A security man then pointed to the singer’s T-shirt – which featured a picture of a pistol with a flame coming out of the top.

“I was like, ‘What am I going to do with a gun on a T-shirt?'” Jones continued, “So he called his superior over. By this point I was like ‘You’re having a laugh, mate.’ He started asking me if it was embossed with anything, but it wasn’t.

“I thought he was going to ask me to strip down and change. I mean, it’s not as if my T-shirt was loaded.”

From Stereophonics News via Cosmic Iguana via Michael Froomkin.

Elected representatives just have too damn much time on their hands. Why does this require legislation?

This from Wired News:

A Lone Star State lawmaker shocked by risqué cheerleading routines has filed legislation designed to end “sexually suggestive” performances at high school football games and other events. “It’s just too sexually oriented, you know, the way they’re shaking their behinds and going on,” said Texas state Rep. Al Edward of the cheerleaders’ blue moves. School districts that knowingly permit sexy cheerleading routines would face funding reductions. The owner of an Austin cheerleading school cheered the legislation. “Any coaches that are good won’t put that in their routines,” said J.M. Farias.