Olympia, Wash., jury is forced to decide which of the two parties has the greater legal right to the same bullshit
Ms. JZ Knight has been blessed since 1977 with the ability to channel the 35,000-yr-old spiritual warrior Ramtha, and if you're that gifted, you want to share, which means the Ramtha School of Enlightenment, charging big bucks for breakthroughs, e.g., teaching greater "focus" by "finding" a symbolic card on a fence while blindfolded. A woman whose name is Whitewind Weaver took the classes and later incorporated some of Knight's finely-honed originality into her own spiritual classes, such as using Knight's phrases "so be that," "neuronet," and "turn to your neighbor." It'll be up to a jury this week to decide whether Weaver stole Knight's genius. (Bonus: Knight was last in News of the Weird in 2000 because she said she had heard, from Ramtha during one of her channeling sessions, that two local rapists on trial had confessed, but it turns out Ramtha was the only one who heard 'em [NOTW 673, 12-31-2000]). The Olympian (Friday) //The Olympian (Thursday) Comments 'ramtha_lawsuit'
It's good to be a British prisoner: Par-teeee!
Britain's justice minister hit the ceiling when he found that rehab-minded officials at London's Holloway Prison had held a vampire-themed dance party, with dress-ups and "blood," to cheer up the inmates, including several female murderers, and when The Sun ran some photos of the killer-gals having fun, victims' relatives went nuts. The Sun//The Sun (original report) Comments 'prison_party'
Bad week for priests
One in Chioggia, Italy, has been sent down for re-training after being discovered in bed with a lady parishioner (discovered by her husband, that is). (2) Rev. Christopher Layden was arrested in Urbana, Ill., and charged with dealing cocaine from the rectory (with mugshot). Daily Telegraph (London) //Associated Press via MSNBC Comments 'badweek_priests'
Ya gotta love the "crazy hardhead"
Ray Wilkinson, 67, a retired, disabled carpenter and Marine Corps veteran, toughed out Hurricane Ike from what was almost ground-zero (Surfside Beach). Sitting there drinking beer, he saw "all kinds of goodies floating away, like my refrigerator . . .." But anyone who ignored this particular evacuation order is a fool, right? Wilkinson agrees. "I didn't say I had all my marbles." "I'm just a crazy, old hardhead." "I don't advise it unless you're nuts." He added that he was never scared and that he did not pray. Houston Chronicle Comments 'crazy_hardhead'
Update: Gil Duff
Readers of the ol' News of the Weird Daily might remember Gil, of Cincinnati, from his stretch of nine days in late April and early May, when he was arrested four times for being passed-out-drunk (three, inside porta-johns). Got him again last Thursday night. Porta-john. WCPO-TV (Cincinnati) Comments 'gil_duff'
Update: Palm Beach County ballots
They finally found those missing 3,478 ballots that disappeared between primary day two weeks ago and recount day [Weird Universe, 9-5-2008], which would have been fine except that they also found 139 more ballots that had disappeared (only no one knew that until they turned up). The machine manufacturer (Sequoia Voting Systems) said everything's working just fine, just fine. WPTV (West Palm Beach) Comments 'palmbeach_update'
Your Daily Loser
Trevell Cowan, 18, Madison, Wis., walked in to a convenience store wearing a bandana over his face (except the eyes) and carrying a gun. A clerk ran outside and flagged down a passing cop, who grabbed Cowan, and the best Cowan could come up with that he had just came in to the store to fill out an application for a job, and, well, the bandana, and the gun . . . ehh. Wisconsin State Journal [scroll down] Comments 'trevell_cowan'
People Whose Sex Lives Are Worse Than Yours
Dr. Praminder Mankoo was convicted in Britain for his cutting-edge hair-loss treatments on a 48-yr-old female patient, mainly, fondling her breasts and holding her face against his junk. Daily Mail (London) Comments 'praminder_mankoo'
Your Daily Jury Duty [no fair examining the evidence; verdict must be based on mugshot only]
Laura Obzera's a school nurse, for heaven's sake, treating sick kids, but that doesn't matter. She's been charged with having sex with teenagers, and this-here is what matters: Chicago Tribune Comments 'laura_obzera'
Eyewitness News [news videos goin' around]
A slide show of what are supposedly the World's Most Repulsive Foods (y'know, grubs, whole rat, ox penis, caterpillar fungus, stuff like that) GreenDaily.com[link from Fark.com] Comments 'repulsive_foods'
More Things to Worry About on Monday
In Hermiston, Ore., a house with more than 700 hoarded turtles ("red-eared sliders," which are known to carry salmonella) . . . . . A woman came home in Winter Garden, Fla., on Friday night to find an SUV submerged in her backyard pool, with two expired people inside, the apparent result of poor driving . . . . . Cliches Come to Life: A busload of British tourists sightseeing in remote Peru were surrounded by about 50 pissed-off local villagers swinging axes at the invaders (and it took their guide four hours to talk their way out of it) . . . . . Hard-core domestic fight in Springfield, Ill.: They angrily played bumper cars with each other down a main drag last Thursday night . . . . . Sounds Like a Joke (but maybe not): A woman working for a bomb-disposal contractor in Iraq sued the company for assigning her to a "dangerous workplace" (because she had to work in several warehouses whose floors had basically been pigeons' toilets).Today's Newsrangers: Steve Miller, Ray Rideout, Allison McCalla, Matt Mirapaul, Gary Davidson, Sandy Pearlman, Mark Neunder, Emory Kimbrough, Joe Littrell, Philip Urban Comments 'worry_080915'
Sonseed never achieved much fame when they were playing together twenty-five years ago, but now they're attracting quite a following on the internet. Once you've seen them perform "Jesus is a friend of mine" you may understand why. The Dougsploitation blog recently tracked down the lead singer, Sal Polichetti, and interviewed him.
The most comprehensive weather study ever has confirmed what we all suspected - the weather really is worse at weekends.
Meteorologists at the University of Karlsruhe evaluated 6.3 million pieces of climate data from across Europe between 1991 and 2005.
Their conclusion: On weekends the weather is worse than on weekdays.
But even if the weather had been good, we would have suffered from this campfire phenomenon. As we are told in The Complete Book of Fire by Buck Tilton:
Q: Why does the smoke from a campfire seem to blow into your face no matter where you sit or how many times you change position around the fire?
A: Your body blocks the flow of fresh air drawn to the flames. You are then creating a low air pressure area with your body and the warm smoke moves toward the lowest air pressure. With no wind, no matter where you sit in relation to the fire, the smoke will be drawn toward you.
You may not have heard of Odo-Ro-No, but you've heard of the word it coined -- "B.O." It began using the term in 1919 in its ads for women's deodorant. Women were warned that if they had "B.O." they might never get a man.
Later Odo-Ro-No introduced the wonderfully off-putting concept of the "Armhole Odor Test" in its ads. This was the test:
When you take off your dress, smell the fabric at the armhole. Its stale "armhole odor" will make it clear to you at last why women of taste and refinement insist on a deodorant that checks perspiration and keeps the underarm dry, as well as sweet.
I've never seen Odo-Ro-No in a store, but apparently Walgreens still sells it.
On my recent trip to Oregon, I stopped at the Rogue River Gorge. And there I saw...
THE LIVING STUMP!
I did not snap a picture, but fortunately I could borrow one from El Sylvan's Flickr set.
The Living Stump is the remnant of a tree whose roots became symbiotically intertwined with a neighboring tree. So that when one tree was cut down, the partner tree continued to nourish the stump, which did not decay as any other chopped-down tree might be expected to.
Gandhi's beloved toilet re-created for museum
The peace icon Mahatma Gandhi was also known for his obsessive hygiene, including reverence for his personal toilet, where he was reported to have done his best thinking. "I learnt [long ago] that a [bathroom] must be as clean as a drawing room," he supposedly wrote. At the major Gandhi ashram-museum in Ahmedabad, they originally removed the toilet as unbecoming, but now, on reflection, they're re-installing it. Daily Telegraph (London) Comments 'gandhi_toilet'
So, my wife's in a coma, but, hey, she's still my wife, and I have needs
A Wisconsin appeals court affirmed a lower court ruling that a surveillance video of David Johnson having sex with his wife in a nursing home could not be used against him in a rape trial (rape, because she's unable to give consent). A married couple has an expectation of privacy in a closed room, and hence the warrant permitting the camera to be set up was unconstitutional. Associated Press via Wisconsin State Journal Comments 'coma_video'
District of Calamity: "Thousands" of write-in votes in the primary election last week were bogus
They think the problem was a defective memory cartridge in the Sequoia Voting Systems software, but several local races might have been affected. (However, there's no possible amount of screwing-up that will change where D.C.'s 3 electoral votes go in November.) Washington Post Comments 'dc_writeins'
Mom, 33, pretends to be her daughter, 15, to fulfill her dream of being a high school cheerleader
Wendy Brown looked a little older, said one staff member at Ashwaubenon High in Green Bay, Wis., but she had the "demeanor" of a high school girl. While the daughter was out in Nevada living with Brown's mother, Brown (who had a history of identity theft) signed up for cheerleading practice and made the squad (although her check to pay for the uniform bounced). Associated Press via Capital Times (Madison) Comments 'mom_cheerleader'
Update: After a lull, the Valentine, Neb., butt-cheek vandal is back
The still-unknown man apparently took the winter off, but he's back, dropping trou at night at storefronts in the tiny town (pop. 2,650), and pressing his oiled/Vaselined butt against the windows. "During one particularly brazen session, virtually all the windows at a local hotel were imprinted." Associated Press via Yahoo//NOTW M042 (1-27-2008) Comments 'vaseline_vandal'
Your Daily Loser
Matthew Snell, 19, Ocala, Fla., has several things going against him: His crime was not exactly manly (graffiti), plus not in a high-traffic venue (on cemetery gravestones). Plus, he signed his work with his very distinctive nickname. Plus, his nickname is Roach. Plus, he looks like a bug. Star-Banner (Ocala) Comments 'roach_snell'
People Whose Sex Lives Are Worse Than Yours
Walter Freeman, 72, let off the hook with probation for violating his child-sex-offender status by not providing a change-of-address, was grateful to the judge for giving him a break. In fact, he was so earnest in intent to follow the terms of the probation that he obeyed them for 35 whole minutes before he got caught violating the order by approaching two kids and offering to buy them ice cream. Poughkeepsie Journal Comments 'walter_freeman'
Your Daily Jury Duty [no fair examining the evidence; verdict must be based on mugshot only]
Christopher Walker, 24, Bannockburn, Scotland, could well have completely accidentally sent that woman the obscene video by mobile phone (intended for his girlfriend but misdialed). But it's not for us to weigh the evidence; we have our orders. BBC News Comments 'christopher_walker'
More Things to Worry About on Saturday
Gourmet alligator head (gator piccata?) in Jacksonville, Fla. (Yep, there's a photo) . . . . . A 16-yr-old girl in India reportedly took The Only Way Out because she was worried about the end of the world from the Large Hadron Collider (but . . but . . maybe that was a cover story for why she's really dead; they're investigating) . . . . . Three photos from "Britain's Dirtiest Flat" (nicotine stains dripping from the walls and a big mound of cigarette butts on the bathroom sink) . . . . . Greenpeace vandals who hit a new coal-fired power plant in Britain were acquitted in a version of "jury nullification," in that jurors thought global warming so serious and imminent that it justifies trashing coal plants . . . . . In Durban, South Africa, three died and two were wounded in a gunfight that started when a man "of Indian descent" taunted a white man at a urinal for having a smaller dick (Seriously) . . . . . In Khandbari, Nepal, Mr. Ramchandra Katuwal, a 24-time loser in the marriage game, said he's quite happy with number 25. Today's Newsrangers: Matt Mirapaul, Sandy Pearlman, Bruce Leiserowitz, Kathryn Wood Comments 'worry_080913'
I'd call this weird in the sense of out-of-the-ordinary and interesting. I certainly wasn't aware that there were gadgets specifically for listening to bats. From the site:
A bat detector is an indispensable tool for anyone studying bats in the field. The detector enables you to hear the otherwise inaudible ultrasonic calls of the bats. This is most useful to identify different species as well as just determining bat activity.
And if you'd like some music to relax to, try The Inaudible World, a collection of bat sounds put together by Michel Barataud. I'm wondering if you need the bat detector to hear the "inaudible" CD.
I started thinking about contortionists again when I happened upon a feature on them in an old issue of Life. In my novel Spondulix I had a character who was an "enter-ologist," a great term I found in Ricky Jay's wonderful history of sideshows and freaks, Learned Pigs and Fireproof Women. Enter-ologists get into impossible places, rather than escape from impossible places.
In any case, a short search of the web turned up lots of online contortionist info, including the Contortion Home Page, which is where I found this pic of April Tatro. That's her in the video below as well.
Paul Di Filippo
Paul has been paid to put weird ideas into fictional form for over thirty years, in his career as a noted science fiction writer. He has recently begun blogging on many curious topics with three fellow writers at The Inferior 4+1.
Chuck Shepherd
Chuck is the purveyor of News of the Weird, the syndicated column which for decades has set the gold-standard for reporting on oddities and the bizarre.
Our banner was drawn by the legendary underground cartoonist Rick Altergott.
I'd call this weird in the sense of out-of-the-ordinary and interesting. I certainly wasn't aware that there were gadgets specifically for listening to bats. From the site:
And if you'd like some music to relax to, try The Inaudible World, a collection of bat sounds put together by Michel Barataud. I'm wondering if you need the bat detector to hear the "inaudible" CD.
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