Saturday, December 29, 2001
Good afternoon. Here I am, conscientiously updating when I'm not able to concentrate more than 5 straight minutes without having to rest. Maybe tomorrow something will get done. Maybe Monday.
Friday, December 28, 2001
Good morning. It’s still not happening here. I might have turned the corner on this cold, though. Except for one bout of food poisoning a couple of years ago, which was over with in 12 hours, I haven’t been this sick in 25 years. But maybe I can do some work later today.
Thursday, December 27, 2001
Yr Ed is still doing poorly with the worst common cold he’s had in several decades, going on 70 hours now and still not having turned the corner. I hope to be back up with the news tomorrow. By the way, Yr Ed’s annual best-of compilation of Florida stories appears this week in Tampa’s Weekly Planet, www.WeeklyPlanet.com, and annual best-of overall compilation appears Sunday in the Washington Post Outlook section, www.WashingtonPost.com/outlook.
Wednesday, December 26, 2001
Good morning. Yr Ed is severely under the weather (which is a crushing blow for one who works alone), and, especially in view of how thin the newsmaking is on big holidays, I will simply pass this morning. But if you need a fix, you can always check out my “competitors”: www.obscurestore.com/ and www.rotten.com/news/ See you tomorrow.
Tuesday, December 25, 2001
Good morning. The guy on the TV this morning said today is a holiday of some sort, so Yr Ed hopes you're having a fine holiday.
Below the Fold for Tuesday
Christmas Rage in Britain: Liz Mace, 40, Southampton, hurled the family TV set out the door because the family had parked in front of it too long, and 2 women in a Barry, South Wales, supermarket staged a WWF-type scrum over the last frozen turkey, with a 40ish woman walking away with the spoils but then, when the loser expressed hope she would burn it, renewed the fight by clobbering her with it.
Our friend Colin Wood, who won the 2 weeks in a nuclear bunker auction (away from all holiday "cheer"), bailed out after 1 week because he was "dying for a pint."
No Longer Weird: Strip club offers to collect and donate gifts to kids through a local charity. They're not always accepted, of course, but Without Walls International Church of Tampa decided to cooperate with Deja Vu club dancers to spread, er, bountiful, er, gifts.
Daniel Feher, 37, has 40 convictions on his record since 1982, and the longest he's been out of jail is 10 months, and he's up now for "dangerous offender" status, which would pretty much lock him up for life, and so he goes crazy at the Ottawa detention center last week because his food wasn't just right; once, about to be arrested for murder, he swallowed 15 bullets and had to keep leaving during his bail hearing to pass them.
[Sources: Sydney Morning Herald-AFP, 12-25-01; Netscape-Reuters, 12-25-01; Miami Herald-AP, 12-24-01; Ottawa Citizen, 12-24-01]
Monday, December 24, 2001
Good morning.
Vancouver's Majestic Man
We’re now into Year Three of Philip Staufen, the young man who turned up in Toronto, sporting an upper-crust British accent but with no recollection of who he was. He moved to Vancouver a year ago, is getting along okay on skid row, but is no closer to finding out who he is than when it started. He has turned down a dozen movie deals this year alone. Despite wide publicity in England, no one has reported a missing person resembling “Philip.” He speaks 3 languages; sported a rich, all-over [if you know what I mean] tan when he surfaced; and has declined almost all help. His first Vancouver lawyer has turned against his story but doesn’t have an explanation, either. [Vancouver Province, 12-20-01]
Story Link
Sound Like Urban Legends
(1) Faith Hoenstine, 15, collects about 10,000 get-well cards every week at her home in Imler, Pa., after an Internet alert from a well-meaning person last year (reminding everyone of the similar case of Craig Shergold, whose 1991 recovery from brain surgery was perhaps fueled by the Guinness-Book-setting record 16M get-well cards). She doesn’t have cancer, but she has lost both legs, one arm, and various fingers. (2) A 58-yr-old woman was hospitalized in Daytona Beach, Fla., Saturday night with serious burns, in a somewhat-familiar pattern: Apparently, her boyfriend was trying to teach an opportunistic oppossum a lesson by burning it alive, but it turned and chased the couple until it caught up to them and set the woman on fire. [Cincinnati Enquirer, 12-22-01] [Daytona Beach News-Journal, 12-23-01] [Link is to the first story]
Story Link
Thanks This Week So Far to
Melanie Campbell, Rick Labrat, Ethan Minovitz and the News of the Weird Board of Editorial Advisors (see below).
News of the Weird Board of Editorial Advisors
Senior Advisors Jenny T. Beatty, Gaal Shepherd Crowl, PaulDi Filippo, Geoffrey Egan, Sam Gaines, Ivan Katz, Barbara
McDonald, Matt Mirapaul, and Jim Sweeney.
Chief Correspondents Paul Bogrow, Bob Brown,
Michael Colpitts, Lance E. Ellisor, Harry Farkas, Leslie Goodman-Malamuth, Fritz Gritzner, Ginger Katz, Wolf Kirchmeir, Myra J. Linden, Bob McCabe, Victor McDonald, Kerry O'Conner, Jerry Pohlen, Yvonne Pover, Larry Ellis Reed, Tom Slone, H.Thompson, Bruce Townley, Barbara Tyger, and Elyse Verse.
Sustained Excellence in Weird-News Reporting: Gary Abbott, Bob Bayer, Dave Beck, Paul Blumstein, Rob Borosak, John Cieciel, Roger Gulbransen, Peter P. Gunther, Herb Jue, Scott Langill, David Lips, Joe Littrell, Steve Miller, Paul Music, Christopher Nalty, Joel O'Brien, Allen Pasternak, Jason Rule, Lee Sechrest, Rob Snyder, Maurine Taylor, Marty Turnauer, Willard Wheeler, Mark Weiss, Jerry Whittle, and Peter Wolf.
The people on this list do not necessarily agree with Yr Ed’s opinions and in fact are probably appalled by some of them from time to time.
©
2001, Chuck Shepherd. All rights reserved.
