Around the weird:news of the bizarre

Food Prep: Spices 101

Buffet Worker Stomps Garlic With Boots
Sep 11, 7:05 PM (ET)

NANUET, N.Y. (AP) - Stomping on garlic with your shoes on is apparently not the correct way to prepare takeout food. The Rockland County health department hit the Great China Buffet restaurant with two violations after a patron took pictures of an employee who was wearing boots while stomping on a huge bowl of garlic in the alley outside.

Health inspectors went to the Chinese restaurant after an employee at a nearby store, Dan Barreto, alerted them to the unsanitary act, which he had recorded on his cell phone.

"I go back there, and the guy's stepping on garlic," said Barreto, who used to eat at the restaurant. "There he was just jumping up and down on it, smashing it up, having a good time."

The health department does not consider a person's shoe or boot a proper instrument to use in food preparation, senior public health sanitarian John Stoughton said Tuesday.

"It was a novel way to prepare food," he said.

Great China Buffet owner Jiang Shu said the worker caught in the pictures had been fired. He said that's not the way his restaurant cooks its chicken with broccoli in garlic sauce and other dishes.

The health department said it would inspect the restaurant again.

 

COLLISION THROWS 1-YEAR OLD FROM VEHICLE

Kingman, Az..A 1-yr. old boy escaped unharmed despite beeing ejected from a vehicle and skidding about 150 feet alon Interstate i-40 while still fastened in his car seat in northwest Arizona. "He was strapped in his seat and was flung from the vehicle, and he remained strapped as he was slidding along the hi-way" stated the Departmene of Public Safety said officer Mary Harnisch of X'zerio Bass. When the seat finally came to a rest, he was fine" Harnisch said the infant ad 7 members of his family were moving back to Las Vegas after being in Texas which didn't work out. He and family members were riding in a van on a trailer being towed by a rented moving truck. Harnisch said the assembly was westbound in Kingman shortly after 9 am when the driver missed the turnoff to Vegas. He slowed down to trun around in the median when an 18-wheeler clipped the van from behind. Harnisch and several occupants of the van were all ejected in the collision. All of them except Ellagance Bass 7, who remains hospitalized, were treated and released from Kingman Regional Medical Center, as were the two occupants of the rental truck. The trucks driver was not harmed. His big-rig came to rest in the median!

LAS VEGAS REVIEW JOURNAL

 

Teen Shoots Himself in Leg at McDonald's
Sep 13, 5:31 PM (ET)

PITTSBURGH (AP) - A 17-year-old boy accidentally shot himself in the leg while standing in line at a McDonald's restaurant and now he faces an illegal weapons charge.

The boy was fiddling with the .25-caliber pistol tucked in his waistband when it fired, wounding him in the upper thigh shortly before 9 p.m. Wednesday, city police Sgt. William Gorman said.

"Some days you deal with a victim, some days you deal with an actor," Gorman said. "But it's a strange day when the actor is the victim."

The boy was in good condition at Mercy Hospital. He was to be charged with illegal possession of a firearm, because he is not old enough to lawfully have a gun, police said.

Police were also trying to determine if the gun was stolen.

The boy was not identified because he is a juvenile. No one else was hurt.

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Police Decide Titus the Dog Is Too Wimpy
Sep 13, 5:42 PM (ET)

SEQUIM, Wash. (AP) - The Sequim Police Department has decided to get rid of Titus the drug dog because he's simply not aggressive enough. Police said that Titus is fine for sniffing out drugs, but they need a patrol dog that can track and bite criminals.

Titus will be declared surplus next year and transferred to another police agency.

K-9 officer Mike Hill has mixed feelings about losing Titus because they've worked and lived together for three years. But Hill agreed that he needs a dog with more bite.

 

More McDonalds news~

OFFICER PUTS WORKER IN JAIL OVER SALTY BURGER

Union City, GA. A McDonald's employee spent a night in jail and is facing criminal charges because a police officer's burger was too salty that he said, it made him sick. Kendra Bull was arrested Friday, charged with a misdemeanor reckless conduct and freed on a $1,000 bond. Bull, 20, said she accidently spilled salt on a hamburger meat and told her supervisor and a co-worker who trid to "thump off the salt" Officer Wendall Adams ate it, got sick, and returned and she was arrested! [PLEASE]

LVRJ

 

Cubs Fans Name Baby Boy Wrigley Fields
Sep 23, 7:24 PM (ET)

CHICAGO (AP) - His parents say he can go by his middle name when he's old enough to decide.

For now, the newborn will be known by his first name: Wrigley.

And his last name: Fields.

His parents are Paul and Teri Fields of Michigan City, Ind. They are - no surprise - fans of the Cubs, who have played at Wrigley Field since 1916. The Fields planned the name for years before their son's birth.

Wrigley Alexander Fields was born Sept. 12 at an Indiana hospital.

Cubs spokeswoman Katelyn Thrall said the name may be a first. The team has no record of other children named Wrigley, although there have been some children names Zambrano and Ryne after Cubs stars Carlos Zambrano and Ryne Sandberg.

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Police: Man Beheads Tame Hotel Duck
Sep 23, 6:28 PM (ET)

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) - A man was in custody Sunday after police said he ripped the head off a tame duck that lived in a hotel lobby's ornamental pond.

Scott D. Clark, a guest at the Embassy Suites Hotel in St. Paul, cornered the duck early Saturday morning, grabbed the bird and ripped its head from its body while a hotel security guard and others watched, police said.

Clark then turned to onlookers and said: "I'm hungry. I'm gonna eat it," St. Paul police Sgt. John Wuorinen said.

"He was allegedly drunk," Wuorinen said.

Clark, 26, of Denver, was detained by hotel security guards until police came to arrest him.

He remained jailed Sunday on suspicion of felony animal cruelty and was scheduled to appear in court Monday to be charged.

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SoCal Man Charged With Smuggling Iguanas
Sep 22, 5:46 AM (ET)

LOS ANGELES (AP) - A man accused of stealing three endangered iguanas from a nature preserve in Fiji and smuggling them into the United States in his prosthetic leg has been indicted.

Jereme James, 33, of Long Beach, faces a single count of smuggling, according to a federal indictment returned Friday in Los Angeles. The charge carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison.

Prosecutors say James stole the Fiji Island banded iguanas while visiting the South Pacific island in September 2002. He then brought the reptiles to the U.S. by hiding them in a special compartment he had constructed in his prosthetic leg, prosecutors said.

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'Eater X' Wins Burrito-Eating Contest
Sep 22, 5:37 PM (ET)

SOUTH PORTLAND, Maine (AP) - A day trader and aspiring pizza chef known as "Eater X" munched through 10 3/4 burritos in a dozen minutes Saturday to win what was billed as the world burrito-eating championship.

Tim Janus, 30, of New York City, said he prepared by just eating candy for a day, which he said helped clear his system.

"I love Mexican food," he said after his victory.

About 100 spectators watched the contest outside the Costa Vida restaurant, where about a dozen entrants competed for $3,000 in prize money. The 18-ounce burritos were made of rice, black beans, pork, cheese and a mild sauce wrapped in a tortilla.

 

MOTHER OF 11 DELIVERS 17-POUND BABY GIRL

Moscow..A small Russian city just got a big addition, a 17-lb, 1 once baby, whose mother had delivered 11 other children. Tatiana Khalina, 42, delivered the girl by Caesarean section at a maternity clinic in Aeisk, a town of 30,000 people in the Altai region in southern Siberia, a nuse at the clinic said. The nurse said, that the Sept. 17 birth went smoothly and that the mother and the baby were fine. She said the baby, Nadezhda [come again] was transferred from a small clinic to a larger maternity hospital in Barnaul, a larger city! [OUCH]

LVRJ

 

Baby born in SUV because dad wanted coffee
9/27/07

CHARLESTON, WV - AP - David Harrah thought he had time for coffee before racing his pregnant wife and their eight children 15 miles to the hospital.

Think again, Daddy.

Sherry Harrah gave birth shortly before dawn Tuesday to the couple's ninth child inside the family's new Ford Expedition alongside U.S. 119 in front of a Toys 'R' Us.

"I told him I wasn't going to make it," Harrah said Wednesday from her bed at Charleston Area Medical Center's Women's and Children's Hospital. "He didn't know what to do because my water broke."

As a labor and delivery nurse at Cabell Huntington Hospital, Harrah said she knew time was of the essence.

"I told him it was his fault, that if he'd have left when I first told him to, this wouldn't have happened," she said. "But he had to make coffee and he wanted to wait until 6:30 to get the kids on the bus. I kept telling him, 'We need to go."'

Harrah and her husband, who is a stay-at-home dad, named their 5-pound, 10-ounce baby girl Carlee, "after the car."

Harrah said Carlee may be the last addition to the Alum Creek family that includes Kaleb, 16; Judy, 15; Chelsey, 11; Mikaya, 9; Colton, 8; Brooklin, 5; Alexia, 3, and Chase, 18 months.

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Whoaaa! Stop Signs Try Humor in Illinois
Sep 29, 12:31 PM (ET)

OAK LAWN, Ill. (AP) - A big red sign that says "Stop" sometimes isn't enough to get everyone to stop. Maybe a laugh will get their attention.

This Chicago suburb has installed second stop signs beneath the regular ones at 50 intersections with messages, including "WHOAAA" or "Stop ... and smell the roses."

"I thought it might make people smile and take notice," Mayor Dave Heilmann said as he launched the campaign Friday. "You've got people on their cell phones, their BlackBerries and iPods while driving. Those are all distractions. Hopefully, when they see a sign they're not expecting it might make them stop."

The new signs are red octagons, just like the real stop signs, but instead of just "Stop" they say "Stop ... right there pilgrim" and "Stop ... in the naame of love." Naame? Think of the drawn-out pronunciation in the hit by the Supremes.

It might be too soon to know whether the alternative signs will work. But while the mayor was posing for a photo with one of the new signs, a driver sped by without stopping.

 

SURROGATE GIVES BIRTH TO HER OWN GRANDCHILDREN

Sao Paulo, Brazil..A 51-yr. old surrogate mother for her daughter has given birth to her own twin grandchildren in northwestern Brazil, hospital officials said. Rosinete Palmeria Serrao, a government health worker, gave birht to twin boys by Caesarean section on Thursday at the Santa Joana Hospital in the city of Recife, the hospital said. The grandmother and twins were released sat. and all were in excellent condition. Serrao decided to serve as a surrogate mother after 4 years of failed attempts at pregancy by her 27 yr-old daughter Claudia Michelle de Brito. Brazilian law stipulates that only close relatives can serve mothers!

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

 

It's not smarter than a fifth grader.

From MSNBC / AP
Microsoft Excel fails math test

Employee blogger wrote that some multiplication results incorrect
Updated: 1:29 p.m. ET Sept 28, 2007

SEATTLE - Microsoft Corp.'s Excel 2007 spreadsheet program is going to have to relearn part of its multiplication table.

In a blog post, Microsoft employee David Gainer said that when computer users tried to get Excel 2007 to multiply some pairs of numbers and the result was 65,535, Excel would incorrectly display 100,000 as the answer.

Gainer said Excel makes mistakes multiplying 77.1 by 850, 10.2 by 6,425 and 20.4 by 3,212.5, but the program appears to be able to handle 16,383.75 times 4.

"Further testing showed a similar phenomenon with 65,536 as well," Gainer wrote Tuesday.

He said Excel was actually performing the calculations correctly, but when it comes time to show the answer on the screen, it messes up.

Gainer said the bug is limited to six numbers from 65,534.99999999995 to 65,535, and six numbers from 65,535.99999999995 to 65,536, and that Microsoft is working hard to fix the problem.

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Here is one for Grissom.

Spiders, Scorpions Found in Manila Mail
Oct 2, 11:59 PM (ET)

MANILA, Philippines (AP) - The package from Hong Kong looked innocent enough, marked "personal clothing." But when customs officials opened it, they were stunned to see about 300 live scorpions and spiders.

The scorpions and spiders - which included tarantulas - were packed in nets, bottles and transparent plastic boxes, concealed under clothes, newspapers reported Wednesday.

"The scorpions almost bit the examiner," Nelson Ebio, a port collector at the Central Mail Exchange Center, told the Philippine Daily Inquirer. It was the first time the post office had encountered such poisonous mail, he said.

The Philippine Star daily quoted Ebio as saying the package arrived from Hong Kong on Monday, but it was not clear who sent it or why, though some speculated they could have been intended for a collector of the creatures.

The spiders and scorpions were later handed over to the parks and wildlife office.

Steven Toledo, head of the office's rescue center, said the spiders and scorpions will be "taken care of" and possibly used in exhibitions. He said some of them were still juveniles.

 

ODD INSTRUMENTS RING OUT ON INTERNET SITE

One maverick musician is striking a strange cord wioth his odd sounds site. Oddmusic.com is a Web-site that showcases an audacious acoustic array, including a "giant tuba" which weighs 122 pounds and is 8-feet tall..a "guitarpsichord", which is half guitar, ha;f harpsicord, and the strange sounds of the "bowlfridgeaphone" an instrument mad from refigerator grates, a metal salad bowl and a bundt cake pan. Web-site curator John Pascuzzi, who plays many of the inttruments profiled on the site, says the real challenge isn't hitting the notes, it's getting the audience to take him seriously

Pascuzzi, who goes by the band name "A Single Thread, says "You can stick a techno beat behind anything. The struggle is to try an not be gimmicky and remain accessible listeners" To hear Pascuzzi play, check out youtube.com/oddmusic NO THANKS

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS​

 

Maybe he didn't want to be late for school.

Police: Child Takes Bus, Leads Chase
Oct 7, 10:01 AM (ET)

DUMAS, Ark. (AP) - A 10-year-old boy took a school bus and led police on a chase along a rural highway, according to police.

School officials had spotted lights coming from the bus yard around 11 p.m. Friday night, and reported the bus stolen. Officers from three counties, four towns and Arkansas State Police began chasing the bus and its driver.

Despite road spikes set up to slow the bus, the bus kept traveling north toward Little Rock along U.S. 65 through Desha and Lincoln counties, then into the next county of Jefferson.

"Be advised, he missed them all. We're now coming into town. Speed's at 25 miles an hour," officers said over a radio scanner.

About 44 miles later, the bus slowed down enough for a sheriff's deputy to make the stop in Pine Bluff, and officers discovered their suspect was a child.

They cuffed the boy and took him into custody, then later released him to his parents. It wasn't known whether the child would face charges.

School officials said he had been part of a group caught on camera trying to pull the same prank last month, according to KATV television station in Little Rock.

 

DOCTORS FIND MAN'S FALSE TEETH STUCK IN THROAT

Wellington, New Zealand.. Doctors in New Zealand lost a man's false teeth during his back surgery, but found them foru days later...stuck in his throat The 81-yr. old entered the hospital in October 2007, and his upper dentures were reomoved before the operation a Health and Disability Commission said Friday. But somehow the report said, the false teeth got back into the heavily dedated man's throat. A neurological condition allowed him to cope with having them in his throat for days... though not easily!

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

 

Golden Retriever Nurses Stray Kitten
Oct 8, 8:13 PM (ET)

STEPHENS CITY, Va. (AP) - A stray kitten has found a new mother in a golden retriever, who began producing milk for the little feline after hearing its cries. Honey hadn't given birth in 18 months, but after her owner, Jimmy Martin, brought home the kitten, she suddenly found herself playing mom.

"She started licking her and loving her. Within a couple of days, Honey started naturally lactating," said Kathy Martin, Jimmy's wife. "The kitten took right to her, and she started nursing her."

Jimmy Martin noticed the kitten, whom the family dubbed "Precious," about six weeks ago, when she ran in front of his concrete truck. After following her and realizing there was no mother cat in sight, he took her home.

The kitten refused to drink from a bottle, and Jimmy's mother, Ruth Martin, feared Precious would die.

The family initially tried to keep Precious and Honey apart, fearing the dog would play too rough with the little gray-striped kitten. But Honey was elated at Precious' presence, wagging her tail and prancing all over the house trying to sneak a peak at her. Eventually, the family let Honey approach Precious, and the dog immediately took to her.

The Martins said they told a veterinarian about Honey and Precious, and learned that interspecies nursing does happen on rare occasion.

Precious now sometimes plays with dog bones, and Honey lets Precious gnaw on her like a puppy would.

"She thinks she's a dog," Kathy Martin said. "She's really fit right in."

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Man Wins Contest With 1,524-Lb. Pumpkin
Oct 8, 7:56 PM (ET)

HALF MOON BAY, Calif. (AP) - An Oregon man won the annual pumpkin weigh-off here, presenting a gigantic gourd that came it at 1,524 pounds. Thad Starr, of Pleasant Hill, Ore., set a contest record with the pumpkin. He'll get $6 a pound, bringing his winnings to $9,144.

"It's the thrill of the victory," Starr said after his pumpkin came out on top. "And it's the fruition of a year's work."

About 80 contestants competed for the first-place prize, according to festival officials.

Pumpkins were lowered by forklift onto a 5-ton capacity digital scale monitored by officials from the San Mateo County Agricultural Commissioner's Office.

The top five pumpkins at the Half Moon Bay Art and Pumpkin Festival will remain on display throughout the week.

The 2006 winner weighed in at 1,223 pounds, officials said.

 

Boy, 6, Tries to Drive to Applebees
Oct 9, 11:03 PM (ET)

BROOMFIELD, Colo. (AP) - A 6-year-old boy was hungry and decided he'd go to Applebees. So he grabbed the car keys, took his booster seat from the back seat of his grandmother's car and placed it in the driver's seat, then made a go of driving himself to the restaurant Tuesday.

He made it about 75 feet. Unable to take the car out of reverse, he crossed the street and ran into a transformer and communication box, knocking out electricity and phone service to dozens of townhomes.

Nobody was injured and the boy, whose name was not released, got out of his car and told his grandmother what happened.

"He proceeded to start the car and started backing up," said Sgt. Colleen O'Connell of the Broomfield Police Department. "He went backward about 47 feet, hit the curb, then went backward another 29 feet."

Investigators couldn't figure out how the boy reached the accelerator.

No charges will be filed.

"I have five children of my own, so I know you cannot watch them every minute they're awake," said nearby resident Nancy Hollis, whose power was knocked out by the accident.

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Woman Accused of Grandchild Shoplifting
Oct 9, 9:36 PM (ET)

UPPER DARBY, Pa. (AP) - A woman had her 4-year-old granddaughter help her shoplift at a department store, police said Tuesday. Surveillance cameras recorded Monica Vitale, 42, on Monday taking items from a Sears and having her granddaughter put them into a toy stroller, Upper Darby Township Police Superintendent Michael Chitwood said.

"She actually hands the little girl the package, and the 4-year-old puts it in the stroller, raises the hood of the stroller, and then Grandmom covers it," Chitwood said.

Vitale allegedly shoplifted from the same store Sunday, but store detectives decided not to pursue her because of the child, Chitwood said.

"I would like to think that the 4-year-old thought it maybe was a game or something like that. I cannot imagine in any way, shape or form that she was stealing," Chitwood said.

Vitale was charged with retail theft, corruption of minors and endangering the welfare of a child. She was held on $25,000 bail for failure to appear for a previous retail theft charge.

 

DAMN> I guess I better tell y 6-yr. old grandson to stop doing this

POLICE OFFICER SHOOTS JAR OFF OF STUCK JAR

Carrollton Township, Mich.
Officer James Kellet knows his job is to serve and protect, even when it comes to nature's stinky black-and-white creatures. When a skunk with it's head stuck in a salad dressing jar wandered into the Carrollton Township police station's parking lot Thursday, he grabbed a pellet gun and shot at the jar from about 40 feet away. The shots shattered the jar, leaving a glass collar around the skunk's neck. With it's head free, the skunk ran off. "I didn't want to use deadly force, and i'ts a residential area" he told the Saginaw News. "The way he was when he took off, he would be able to eat, breathe and spary his stench like they do" The makers of T. Marzetti's salad dresing are sending the police officer free coupons [OH GOODIE]

LVRJ