Drunk Driving Victim Deemed “Too Graphic”

Mike Harn is in a fight with Mothers Against Drunk Driving. Twenty years ago his wife, Rose, was in an accident caused by a teenage drunk driver. She was left brain-damaged and paralyzed. Ever since then Mike has been taking her around to schools and state fairs where he displays her (often in cooperation with MADD) as a kind of human atrocity exhibition, to illustrate the consequences of drunk driving.

That is, until some fair-goers at the Western Idaho Fair complained that the sight of Rose was "too graphic." MADD subsequently dropped Harn as a volunteer, citing the complaints about her. Mike Harn is outraged by this, noting that the point of showing Rose WAS to shock people.

The irony is that not too long ago people used to pay to see human exhibits like Rose at state fairs. I guess nowadays the fairs have been purged of anything strange or disturbing. But I wonder, if Mike Harn chose to visit the fair with his wife, in an unofficial capacity, they couldn't exactly stop him, could they? (Thanks, Bob!)

Posted By: Alex - Tue Oct 07, 2008 - Comments (5)
Category: Inebriation and Intoxicants

Careers for Christian Youth

My pal Ed Morris sent me this 1956 book. Was there ever such an innocent time? The text is quite reasonable and sensible and not overly evangelical, so I could not really find any silly passages to scan. The dreamy cover will have to suffice.

Posted By: Paul - Tue Oct 07, 2008 - Comments (9)
Category: Religion, Work and Vocational Training, Children, 1950s

Chuck’s Hand-Picked Overnight Weird News for Tuesday

Correction to this week's News of the Weird
The Ocala (Fla.) Star-Banner accused school board candidate Bernard LeCorn of not having college degrees from the institutions he claimed, and News of the Weird reported that in M078, 10-5-2008. Subsequently, the Star-Banner corrected its story. LeCorn does have the degrees he claims. The error was made by school personnel who initially responded incorrectly to the Star-Banner investigator. Star-Banner
Comments 'correction_lecorn'

"Fool for a client" whips prosecutors, now wants state payout
Career criminal Robert Aldrich got illegally stopped by Milton, Mass., police officers (and therefore the search evidence they found was tossed out), but prosecutors went ahead, anyway, because Aldrich was acting as his own lawyer, and prosecutors figured they were smarter than Aldrich and would slam-dunk him. Two different judges, though, ruled for the "fool." Now Aldrich has found some way-obscure 1911 state law that seemingly entitles him to $66k compensation. Boston Globe
Comments 'robert_aldrich'

Your daily non-sequitur from Homeland Security
New York artist Jerilea Zempel was detained at the Maine border driving back from Canada, and it looks like a routine search, right up to the point where the agent grabs a sketch of a funny-looking SUV, takes a meeting with a supervisor, and declares, "We think you're engaged in some kind of copyright infringement." Press Republican (Plattsburgh, N.Y.)
Comments 'jerilea_zempel'

Your Daily Jury Duty
[no fair examining the evidence; verdict must be based on mugshot only]
Randy Lewis, 43, and Paula Evans, 38, Blountville, Tenn. (and they weren't even the ones behind the wheel) (and it's cheating if you sneak down to the end of this post to see Randy's whole mug shot, so don't cheat; you're bigger than that) Times-News (Kingsport, Tenn.)
Comments 'randy_lewis'

More Things to Worry About on Tuesday
It's official: Fat people, particularly, face the buffet while they're eating, take tables closer to it, and don't much care what else is on the table once they fix on a dish they like . . . . . Slow news day: How about those chastity belts for male goats? . . . . . The Georgia Supreme Court ruled that a transsexual politician did not defraud the voters by failing to disclose that she used to be a man . . . . . At Dallas's last-resort hospital (Parkland Memorial), a guy died after 19 hrs in the waiting room (164 people ahead of him) . . . . . Another one of those "why isn't he dead yet?" blood-alcohol readings (.491). Today's Newsrangers: Joe Littrell, Rae Augenstein, Emmitt Dove
Comments 'worry_081007'

Posted By: Chuck - Tue Oct 07, 2008 - Comments (0)
Category:

When to amputate?

Trevor Wikre broke his pinkie during football practice. The doctors planned to set the bone, but they warned him that the injury might end his football career, and the healing process would certainly prevent him from finishing his senior year as a Mesa State College offensive lineman. So Wikre opted for a more radical procedure. He told the doctors to amputate his finger.

Is Wikre a hero or an idiot? His teammates are treating him like a hero ("No doctor is going to tell him what he can do or can’t do. I have nothing but respect for him." and "It’s awesome. That’s a pretty amazing commitment and sacrifice to go the rest of his life without a pinkie.") Personally, I'd classify him more in the idiot category. Poetic justice would be if the coaches benched him for the rest of the year.

Posted By: Alex - Mon Oct 06, 2008 - Comments (9)
Category: Medicine, Sports

The Life Clock

The Life Clock is the creation of artist Bertrand Planes. Each number represents a year of your life. It assumes that you're not going to live past 84. After that, you're evidently on borrowed time.

I think the numbers should be spaced to reflect the subjective experience of time -- with the first half of the clock going from 0 to 21, and all the remaining years crammed into the second half. (Thanks, Sandy!)

Posted By: Alex - Mon Oct 06, 2008 - Comments (8)
Category: Art

Sabrage

I've just learned about the art of opening a bottle of champagne with a sword. The practice is called sabrage.

You can watch a video here that teaches you how to do it yourself!

Posted By: Paul - Mon Oct 06, 2008 - Comments (15)
Category: Human Marvels, Inebriation and Intoxicants, Weapons

Sworn Virgins

Traditional Albanian society was not exactly pro-women's rights. Women were expected to marry and produce children, and that's about it. They were forbidden to partake in any "male" activities, such as smoking or wearing a watch.

But there was another option. A woman could choose to become a "sworn virgin," in which case she would become a man in the eyes of Albanian society, allowed to do all the things that men do (including being able to inherit property). The big drawback was no sex or marriage for the rest of their life. The punishment for breaking the vow was death.

SFGate has an interview with one of the last "sworn virgins" in Albania. There's fewer than a hundred remaining. A 2007 Washington Post article also has a video interview with a sworn virgin.

Posted By: Alex - Mon Oct 06, 2008 - Comments (5)
Category: Gender, Gender-bending

Joan Avoids A Cold

As the weather becomes colder, let us all pay heed to our health, so that we may all stay well to attend the "Dutch Festival" of our choice.

Posted By: Paul - Mon Oct 06, 2008 - Comments (5)
Category: Domestic, Education, Family, Children, Parents, Hygiene, Body Fluids, Parades and Festivals, Self-help Schemes, 1940s

Chuck’s Hand-Picked Overnight Weird News for Monday

"Pests, pests, we need to get rid of these pests!"
That was Flint (Mich.) city Councilwoman Jackie Poplar, while she was spraying a can of Raid either right at two of her most annoying Council-meeting critics (according to them, anyway, including one woman whose face swelled up in allergic reaction) or "at [actual] bugs" that she alone had somehow seen crawling around the meeting room. Police are investigating the alleged assault. Flint Journal
Comments 'jackie_poplar'

You realize, of course, that Leona Helmsley has not just bequeathed $12m to her little dog "Trouble" but $8B to dogs in general?
As Jeffrey Toobin wrote last week in The New Yorker, it's all legal. Fact is, she specifically hated every human in her life (except her dear husband Harry) and generally hated everybody else. The New Yorker
Comments 'leona_helmsley'

New York nerd methodically read the entire unabridged dictionary
Emmon Shea, 37, has just written a book based on his having devoured the 20-volume Oxford English Dictionary, 59m words. He said he improved his vocabulary a bit (like "unbepissed," meaning, er, well, "not urinated upon"), and he was sometimes thrilled ("I would wake up and start reading at three in the morning because I was so excited"). But he also got a little deranged in demeanor from time to time, and he learned so many new words that he forgot common ones, and we're still shaky on whether it's possible that someone like this can have a "girlfriend," though he says she exists and was supportive. The Times (London)
Comments 'emmon_shea'

Eyeball bling
Yes, a contact-lens thingie with a super-light but sparkly chain dangling down. Aren't humans great, to be thinking of stuff like this? (Speaking of fashion plates, here and here are two from The Smoking Gun's weekly mugshot collection. TSG never tells you what crime they're up for, but one thing we do know is that they waste quite a bit of time with the mirror every day.) Daily Mail (London)
Comments 'eyeball_bling'

Your Daily Jury Duty
[no fair examining the evidence; verdict must be based on mugshot only]
We have to decide whether Tyler Hamlen, 20, is too dangerous to be out on the street (or at least too dangerous to be trusted with the remote, to be ordering up DirecTV pay-per-views). Standard-Examiner (Ogden, Utah)
Comments 'tyler_hamlen'

Eyewitness News
[news videos goin' around]
This is a series of nature photos of possibly the weirdest place on planet Earth: Socotra Island, part of Yemen but actually a little closer to Somalia. Almost like creative digital art, except that they're supposed to be real things. DarkRoastedBlend.com [link from Overlawyered.com]
Comments 'socotra_island'

More Things to Worry About on Monday
Catch a replay of the U.S. Rock-Paper-Scissors championship from Las Vegas tonight at 9 p.m. Eastern on Fox Sports cable network . . . . . If you made $300m last yr, as J.K. Rowling did, you made, oh, $9.50 every single passing second . . . . . More World-Class Multi-tasking: A big-rig driver in Britain managing a full load while watching a Battlestar Galactica DVD on the dash. And a Wisconsin woman cell-phoning and reading a book while driving . . er, driving into the back of that parked car. And a driver high-speed-fleeing cops . . while rolling a joint . . . . . . At Ada Barak's Carnivorous Plant Farm in northern Israel, you can get the (approx. $80) spa relaxation treatment of having a load of snakes crawl over you ("Their presence stirs something deep and peaceful in me," wrote a Time reviewer). Today's Newsrangers: Sue Clark, Ginger Katz, Jenny Beatty, Scott Langill, Robert McClafferty
Comments 'worry_081006'

Posted By: Chuck - Mon Oct 06, 2008 - Comments (0)
Category:

A Sleeping Dog

In 1965 the French neurophysiologist Michel Jouvet operated on 35 cats, creating lesions in a part of their brainstem called the locus coeruleus. The operation caused no visible difference in their waking behavior, but their behavior while sleeping changed dramatically. They would stalk, leap, and pounce on imaginary prey -- while completely asleep. Jouvet concluded that the locus coeruleus is responsible for suppressing muscle activity during sleep. Damage it, and you act out your dreams.

That's the scientific explanation of the phenomenon, which is a long way of introducing this video of a dog "running" while asleep. Evidently the dog doesn't have a fully functioning locus coeruleus.

Posted By: Alex - Sun Oct 05, 2008 - Comments (3)
Category: Animals, Science