Around the weird:news of the bizarre

That is so weird, desertwind! But interesting stuff on this page.

 

Weird indeed kazzy lots of strange things going on


ICEBOX OF THE NATION HITS 40 BELOW ZERO BRRRR

Minneapolis, MN...It lived up to it's name..The temperature in International Falls, MN, fell to 40 below last week, just a few days after the northern Minnesota town won a federal trademark making it officially the "Icebox of the Nation". Resident NIck McDougall couldn't get his car trunk to close after he got out his charger to jump-start his dead battery. By late morning, the temp. had risen all the way up to 18--below zero. 'This is about as cold as it gets, and it's bad, there's no wind, it's just icy cold", said McDougall, 48, a worker at The Fisherman, a convenience store on this Canadian border town! [I couldn't stand this, I complain when it's 29 above here]

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

 

Teacher hid illiteracy during 17-year career.
(The Guardian)

A retired teacher who now spends his time campaigning for improved literacy has revealed that he taught classes for 17 years even though he could not read or write.
Despite his illiteracy, John Corcoran worked as a teacher then as a property developer until the age of 48, when he decided to seek help. He used oral and visual stimuli with his pupils, rather than words, and insists he was a very successful teacher.
"There wasn't the written word in there. I always had two or three teacher's assistants in each class to do board work or read the bulletin," he said in a television interview.
He began to hide his inability to read and write from the age of about 10, relying on classmates to help him cheat in lessons. "I can remember when I was eight years old saying my prayers at night saying, 'Please, God, tomorrow when it's my turn to read please let me read.' You just pretend that you are invisible and when the teacher says, 'Johnnie, read,' you just wait the teacher out because you know the teacher has to go away at some point," he told 10 News in San Diego.
He continued undetected through high school and the University of Texas at El Paso, where he gained an athletics scholarship and was then automatically offered a teaching job. That is when he created an elaborate oral teaching method to avoid detection in the high school classes he taught - including English grammar.
"As a teacher it really made me sick to think that I was a teacher who couldn't read. It is embarrassing for me, and it's embarrassing for this nation."
He is now the president of the John Corcoran Foundation, which is dedicated to eradicating adult illiteracy.

 

Bank Accidentally Gives Man $5 Million
Feb 20, 4:04 PM (ET)

NEW YORK (AP) - A man was charged with withdrawing $2 million from an account after a bank confused him with a man who has the same name. Benjamin Lovell was arraigned Tuesday on grand larceny charges. The 48-year-old salesman said he tried to tell officials at Commerce Bank in December that he did not have a $5 million account.

Lovell said he was told it was his and he could withdraw the money.

-=-=-=-=-

$8,000? That's Our Water Bill?
Feb 20, 7:48 PM (ET)

LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) - A Danville family has received an $8,000 water bill for house they say they haven't lived in for more than two years. The granddaughters of Lurlene Gray say they are stuck with the high bill that covers part of January and February.

Sherlene Tucker told WKYT in Lexington that she paid the last bill she received, about $35 to cover the period from October 9 through December 11. Tucker said her mother owns the house, but she went to a nursing home two years ago.

-=-=-=-=-

Our Bill Says What?
Feb 20, 7:56 PM (ET)

LONDON (AP) - First she waited 45 minutes to place her order. Then she waited more than an hour for the food. Then she saw the bill. Clare Watkin was out with a group of friends Friday at an Italian steak restaurant in the English town of Lichfield, about 125 miles north of London when she found "absolutely disgusting language" printed on her bill, the British Broadcasting Corp. reported.

The BBC Web site carried what it said was a copy of the bill, with the message - a crude invitation to oral sex - printed between the cabernet sauvignon and the fish cakes.

-=-=-=-=-

Meatloaf the Cat Heads Home After Trek
Feb 20, 7:58 PM (ET)

PHOENIX (AP) - A cat named Meatloaf who took a 3-week cross-country ride locked in a storage container is headed home to Florida. Arizona Humane Society officials say the 2-year-old gray cat apparently crawled into the large locker in Pompano Beach, Fla. as a man loaded it for a move to Phoenix.

The container spent time in a Florida warehouse and on a semitrailer before being delivered to a company's Phoenix facility.

-=-=-=-=-

Cat Flees Fire, Ends Up 240 Miles Away
Mon Feb 18, 2:59 PM (ET)

ALBUQUERQUE (AP) — A cat that fled a house fire is back home in Albuquerque, N.M., after turning up some 240 miles away. The black and white cat named Miko disappeared in December, on the night of the fire.

About two weeks ago, Miko's owner got a call from an animal shelter in Pueblo, Colo., saying her cat was safe.

-=-=-=-=-

Your Tacos or Your Life!
Mon Feb 18, 6:14 PM (ET)

FONTANA — A hunger for carnitas nearly led to some carnage after a Fontana man was robbed of a bag of tacos at gunpoint. Police Sergeant Jeff Decker said the 35-year-old victim had just bought about $20 in tacos from a street-corner stand Sunday night and was bicycling home when the suspect confronted him and said "Give me your tacos."

Decker said the suspect grabbed the bag of food, punched the victim in the face and began to flee.

When the victim demanded his tacos back, the suspect pointed what appeared to be a handgun at the man and threatened to kill him before running away.

 

Voting opens for world's oddest book title 2008

LONDON (AFP) - British industry magazine The Bookseller has announced this year's shortlist for the oddest book title of the year, with a typical mix of the quirky and eclectic.
Visitors to the magazine's website, www.thebookseller.com, can make their choice from six mostly non-fiction titles unearthed by publishers, bookstore workers and librarians from around the world.
The winner will be announced on March 28.
The nominees for The Diagram Prize are:
-- "I Was Tortured by the Pygmy Love Queen" by Jasper McCutcheon;
-- "How to Write a How to Write Book" by Brian Paddock;
-- "Are Women Human? And Other International Dialogues" by Catharine A. MacKinnon;
-- "Cheese Problems Solved" by P.L.H McSweeney;
-- "If You Want Closure in Your Relationship, Start With Your Legs" by Big Boom;
-- "People who Mattered in Southend and Beyond: From King Canute to Doctor Feelgood" by Dee Gordon.
Horace Bent, The Bookseller's diarist, said on the magazine's website: "I confess: I have been anxious that as publishing becomes ever more corporate, the trade's quirky charms are being squeezed out.
"Lists are pruned, targets are set, authors are culled. But happily my fears have been proved unfounded: oddity lives on."
Last year's winner was "The Stray Shopping Carts of Eastern North America: A Guide to Field Identification", by Julian Montague.
The Diagram Prize has been running since 1978, when the winner was "Proceedings of the Second International Workshop on Nude Mice".

 

The following news story is hard to describe. Make sure you haven't eaten anything recently before clicking on the following link. You might lose your lunch.
Bride of Wildenstein?

 

EWWW, Dynamo1 gag me, gross, I've seen her on the show-biz channel, does she really think she look's beautitul? grotesque how sad, she's a freak!!!

AFTER 25 DAYS, KITTEN FOUND IN SUBWAY

New York, N.Y. A skittish kitten that scampered out of it's carrier on a subway platform has been found after 25 days in underground tuunels. Transit workers tracked down the 6-month old Georgia under mid-town Manhattan, last Saturday. Police reunited her with her owner Ashley Phillips. a 24-year old Bronx librarian. Georgia, who was found cowering in a drain between two tracks, had lost weight and had some scratches, but otherwise was OK, and unhurt. She disappeared while Phillips was bringing her home from her veterianrian visit!

ASSOCIATED PRESS

 

ARKANSAS POOCH BEATS TORNADO, RETRNS HOME

Gassville, ARK.
Everyday since a Feb.5 tornado damaged the Harrises' hoe and their family has checked to see whether Pongo made it back. On Friday, nearly three weeks after the storm, he was back, hungry, but healthy. "he looked in and poked his head out of the dog house", said Tom Harris, Pongo's owner, "he was so excited to see them" The 9-year old Basset hound and Blue heeler mix had been missig since the tornado devastated the Gassville area. He ran off after the tornado broke open a fence!

FISH SENT INTO SPACE TO TEST MOTION SICKNESS
Stockholm, Sweden
72 small fish were briefly launched into space Thursday by researchers hoping their swImming patterns would shed some light on motion sickness. German researchers sent the cichlids on a 10-mnute rocket ride that blasted off in northern Sweden, said Reinhard Hilbig, of the Zoological Institute at the University of Stuttgart. The thumbnail-size fish were filmed as they swam in small aquariums. The team will study the video to see if some fish swam in circles, because that is what fish do when they experience motion sickness! [NICE JOB]

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

 

Woman Gives Birth to Baby Nearly Her Own Size
Friday, February 29, 2008
Fox News

CINCINNATI — Imagine giving birth to an 18-inch baby.

That would be hard enough for the average-sized female, but for Stacey Herald, who is 2-feet, 4-inches tall, it was an amazing task.

The Guinness Book of World Records is investigating Herald’s claim that she is the smallest woman to ever give birth to such a large baby, it is being reported by WLWT Channel 5.

Herald, 33, was born with osteogenesis imperfecta, a genetic disorder that causes bones to break easily.

She gave birth five weeks ago to baby Makaia, who is unaffected by the disorder and will grow to an average size. However, Herald’s 16-month-old daughter, Katira, also suffers from the disorder.

“My whole life I've been told that I wasn't able to have children, (and) I would not live through the pregnancy – that with the size of my torso, the baby would grow up underneath my lungs and smother out my lungs and my heart, and we would both die,” Herald told WLWT.

“Something inside me just didn't believe that.” Doctors originally told Herald she should abort Katira, but Herald, and her husband Wil refused.

 

Here is another of those weird news items where a picture (or several of them) is worth a thousand words or more.

Having a bad day.

 

FIRST A TORNADO, NOW A BLAZE..CAT STILL SURVIVES

Clinton, ARK. Charlie Brown is down to 7 lives. Donna and Danny Pistole's black-and-white cat survived a Feb. tornado that destroyed the family's mobile home. The, the cat took up refuge in a pile of debris from the storm that the family had set afire last week, while cleaning up the ruble. On Thursday, Donna Pistole follwed Charlie Browns' weak meows and found him stuck in the briars. His paws and nose were scorched, his eyes matted shut and his coat was singed, but he was still alive, and is now doing fine!

MAN HAS FRIEND SHOOT HIM TO GET TIME OFF FROM HIS JOB

Pasco, WASH. Ehat happened to faking a cough and sore throat. Sheriff's dectectives in Franklin County, Wash. say a man had his friend shoot him in the shoulder, so he wouldn't have to go to work. When he first spoke with deputies, Daniel Kuch told them he'd been a victim of a drive by shooting, while he was jogging. Bust dectectives told the local radio station KONA that he later acknowledged that he had asked his friend to shoot him so he could get some time off from work, to avoid a drug test. [he's now fired] The friend has been arrested for investigation of reckless endangerment. Kuch is also to be charged with fling a false police report!

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

 

INDIAN INFANT DEFIES DEATH

Ahmadabad, India..A new born girl fell through the toilet in a moving train and onto the tracks moments after her mother gave birth prematurely, surviving nearly two hours before being found. The infant's mother Bhuri was traveling with relatives on a train when she went into labor she quickly went into the bathroom and unexpecedly gave birth. "Later she fell unconscious and the baby fell through the toilet" said her brother-in-law Arjun. "We asked what happened" A search was quickly organized, and guards found the baby. "She was on the rail tracks for almost two hours, said a local doctor. but was fine, he said later at the local hospital where they were both taken. The baby was born 8-10 weeks early and weighed only 3 lbs. 4 oz. She did have a low heart rate and body temp. but will be Ok, the mother and family said "It was a miracle"

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

 

I can't believe this story is true:


SHERIFF: WOMAN SAT ON TOILET FOR 2 YEARS
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Authorities are considering charges in the bizarre case of a woman who stayed in her boyfriend's bathroom for two years, spending most of her time on the toilet — so that her body was stuck to the seat by the time the man finally called police.
It appeared the 35-year-old Ness City woman's skin had grown around the seat, said Ness County Sheriff Bryan Whipple. The woman initially refused emergency medical services but was finally convinced by responders and her boyfriend that she needed to be checked out at a hospital.
"We pried the toilet seat off with a pry bar and the seat went with her to the hospital," Whipple said. "The hospital removed it."
Whipple said investigators planned to present their report Wednesday to the county attorney, who will determine whether any charges should be filed against the boyfriend.
"She was not glued. She was not tied. She was just physically stuck by her body," Whipple said. "It is hard to imagine. ... I still have a hard time imagining it myself."
Police declined to release the couple's names, but the boyfriend, Kory McFarren, agreed to be interviewed Wednesday by The Associated Press. He identified his girlfriend as Pam Babcock.
McFarren, 36, told investigators he took Babcock food and water and asked her every day to come out of the bathroom.
"And her reply would be, 'Maybe tomorrow,'" Whipple said. "According to him, she did not want to leave the bathroom."
McFarren told the AP that he wasn't to blame, and that it was solely Babcock's choice to remain in the bathroom.
"She is an adult; she made her own decision. It was my fault I should have gotten help for her sooner; I admit that. But after a while, you kind of get used to it," McFarren said.
Although authorities said they think Babcock was in the bathroom for two years, McFarren said he wasn't certain how long she stayed there. He said she had a phobia about leaving the room because of childhood beatings.
"It just kind of happened one day. She went in and had been in there a little while, the next time it was a little longer. Then she got it in her head she was going to stay — like it was a safe place for her," McFarren said.
But McFarren said Babcock moved around in the bathroom during that time, bathed and changed into the clothes he brought her. He said they conversed and had an otherwise normal relationship — except that it all happened in the bathroom.
McFarren, who works at an antique store, said he has been taking care of Babcock for the 16 years they have lived together.
McFarren called police on Feb. 27 to report that "there was something wrong with his girlfriend," Whipple said.
Police found Babcock clothed and sitting on the toilet, her sweat pants down to her mid-thigh. She was "somewhat disoriented," and her legs looked as if they had atrophied, Whipple said.
"She said that she didn't need any help, that she was OK and did not want to leave," he said.
She was reported in fair condition at a hospital in Wichita, about 150 miles southeast of Ness City. Whipple said she refused to cooperate with medical providers or law enforcement investigators.
McFarren said that his girlfriend has an infection in her legs that has damaged her nerves, and that she has no feeling in her legs. She may wind up in a wheelchair, he said.
Authorities said they did not know whether she was mentally or physically disabled.
The case has been the buzz of Ness City, said James Ellis, a neighbor.
"I don't think anybody can make any sense out of it," he said.
Ellis said he had known the woman since she was a child but that he had not seen her for at least six years.
He said she had a tough childhood after her mother died at a young age and apparently was usually kept inside the house as she grew up. At one time the woman worked for a long-term care facility, he said, but he did not know what kind of work she did there.
"It really doesn't surprise me," Ellis said. "What surprises me is somebody wasn't called in a bit earlier."

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

WOMAN SITS ON TOILET FOR 2 YEARS
Police in western Kansas are investigating what they call a bizarre case of a woman they said sat on her boyfriend's toilet for two years.
Ness County Sheriff Bryan Whipple said the boyfriend called the Sheriff's office late last month to report that something was wrong with his girlfriend.
The sheriff said the woman's muscles had atrophied and that medical personnel had to remove her from the toilet because she was bound to it by "natural means."
Whipple said the woman initially refused ambulance service and didn't want to leave. Officers say she is hospitalized in Wichita but is refusing to talk to authorities. Her boyfriend said she stayed in the bathroom on her own free will.
Whipple said the boyfriend called police on February 27th to
report that "there was something wrong with his girlfriend,"
never explaining why it took him two years to call.
He said the boyfriend had brought the woman food and water
during the two years and told investigators he asked her daily to
come out of the bathroom, but she would not.
Ness County Attorney, Craig Crosswhite released a statement regarding the case on Thursday. Crosswhite said he will be reviewing the Sheriff's report and afterwards will file necessary legal proceedings in Ness County District Court. He said he will consult with the Kansas Attorney General's Office concerning the nature and extent of possible charges which can be pursued.
WSAZ

 

I heard about that, they had advertised it on 108 FM this morning, the girls and I were in disbelief, we thought it was prank by the radio station:wtf:

 

That woman on the toilet for two years, if the most preposterous bizzare news ever, I can't believe that? holidays, birthdays, sleeping eating..where the H was her family, friends:scream:her skin grew into the toilet EWWW:klingon:

800-POUND MAN'S DATE CANCELED AFTER MISHAP

Mexico City.. When Manual Uribe went out on a date, he made all of the nesessary arrangements, a forklift to carry him out of the house, a flatbed big enough to haul him and his bed. But even the open road wasn't big enough to handle Uribe's dream of celebrating a budding romance and his success to losing 440 lbs. Uribe was halfway to a picnic near his Monterrey area home on Sunday when one of the posts over his bed, hit an overpass. Uribe's blood pressure dropped so much his doctors advised him not to go any furthur. A high protein diet has reduced his weight to 800 pounds. "We'll just have to plan it better" he said later! [who would want to date him?]

The Associated Press