Weird But True

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Weird But True

The 1918 World Champion Boston Red Sox

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October 18, 2003 --Bite your tongue if you want to become a fluent English speaker - or better yet, have a doctor chop off a half-inch or so. That's what parents in Korea are having done to their children to give them an edge in their increasingly competitive global society. The five-minute operation is being performed on youngsters who have difficulty pronouncing some English words. The procedure makes the tongue more flexible by cutting the strap of tissue linking it to the floor of the mouth.

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October 19, 2003 -- A Tanzanian man sliced off his penis in a failed attempt to win sympathy from creditors after throwing away their money on prostitutes and alcohol. The 24-year-old man came to the agonizing decision after realizing he could not pay back the thousands of dollars friends and family lent him to invest in a business venture. The man is being treated at a hospital in the African country's northern Manyara region.

HAY... I DON'T MAKE THIS STUFF UP. IT'S IN THE NEWs

[RspctFrmCalgary]

OMFG!!!

[RspctFrmCalgary]

Monday, October 20, 2003
Enlightening sighting for local family
By KRISTEN ENEVOLD, CALGARY SUN


Two glowing clouds that seemed to follow a Bearspaw family around their property Saturday night has the makings of a fictional tale, but Omkar Channan knows what he saw.

"It does sound silly, but it's also something I've never seen before -- and no one I've talked to has an explanation," he said yesterday.

Around 10 p.m. Saturday, Channan's son was walking the family dog on their property northwest of the city.

"All of a sudden, the dog started barking and we saw two small clouds over the house -- they seemed to be chasing each other around and then merging together," said the elder Channan, who is a published author and recently retired from his role as the city's chief controller of prosecutions.

As the family gathered outside, the strangest part of their experience began.

"We were walking around the property, and whatever it was seemed to be following us," said Channan, explaining the objects were about 900 to 1,200 metres above ground.

In an effort to get witnesses to the strange event, the Channans called the RCMP, both the Calgary International and Springbank airports, and neighbours.

"It was the strangest thing I've ever seen," said Carol Geremia, one of the Channan's neighbours who also called others as she ventured outside.

"The clouds, or whatever they were, were perfectly round and illuminated -- it kind of gave me the creeps," she said.

The Cochrane RCMP member who stopped by attributed the illumination to an event possibly going on at Olympic Plaza, while the airports didn't see anything unusual in the night sky.

But Channan and his neighbours are still intrigued.

"The (possibility) of it being a UFO comes to mind, but I've never experienced anything like that before and it's just really bizarre that it seemed to be following us," Channan said.

Don Hladiuk has been an astronomer for more than 30 years and the Channans' experience is unusual, he said.

"Over the past 20 to 30 years, I've heard a lot of stories and a lot can be explained, but this one comes out of the abnormal," he said.

The only explanation Hladiuk could think of is lightning interacting with clouds, or the Calgary Police Service's helicopter flying overhead.

Meanwhile, the Channans and the Geremias will be looking to the skies again tonight to see if what they spotted will return.

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BERLIN, Oct 20 (Reuters) - A 25-year-old German woman
enraged over another Saturday night of boring television
programmes and dull re-runs hurled her TV set out the window of
her fifth floor apartment window, police said on Monday.
"There was nothing decent on so I just threw the thing out
the window," the woman identified as Veronika K., told Bild
newspaper.
No one was hurt in the incident in Potsdam. She later calmed
down and watched another television with her children.

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Austrian saved by a crane when parachute fails
BERLIN (Reuters) - A parachutist jumping from a 480-foot
skyscraper escaped death when his chute failed to open properly
but got snared on a crane next to the building leaving him
hanging, German police said Monday.
"He got lucky after his initial misfortune," said a
spokesman for police in the Bavarian capital Munich.
Fire services took an hour to rescue the 32-year-old
Austrian extreme sports enthusiast after his base jump from the
35th floor left him hanging 150 feet up.
Police released the man, who is under investigation for
making an illegal parachute jump, on bail.

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BLANTYRE, Oct 19 (Reuters) - A Malawi court fined a foreign
journalist on Sunday for breaching security rules by trying to
use a business class toilet on a state airliner carrying
Vice-President Justin Malewezi.
"Your Worship...I did not know that it was an offence on Air
Malawi to visit the toilet in the business class," Peter
Chilambwe told Presiding Magistrate Arthur Mtalimanja.
The Zambian journalist said after being fined 50 kwacha (47
U.S. cents) on a charge of conduct likely to cause a breach of
public peace that he would never travel with Air Malawi again.
"They should make these rules clear when one is booking," he
told Reuters.
Regional Police Prosecutor Paul Jeremani said Chilambwe was
not armed or violent, but police had treated the case seriously
because the security of the vice-president -- who was sitting in
the business class section -- had been at stake.
Cabin staff alerted police on the ground when Chilambwe
tried during a flight on Friday to go from the economy section
of the plane to the toilet in business class.
Chilambwe was arrested on arrival in the capital Lilongwe
and pleaded guilty to the offence, which carries a maximum
sentence of a fine and three months imprisonment with hard
labour.

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Niagra Falls ....slowly I turn

NIAGARA FALLS, Ont. (CP) - A Michigan man survived a plunge over
Niagara Falls wearing only the clothes on his back, witnesses say.
Bystanders at the brink of the Horseshoe Falls said a smiling
man climbed over a wrought-iron barricade early Monday afternoon,
slid down the embankment to the rocks below, stepped into the water
and went over the Falls.
Other witnesses said the man apparently then swam to shore.
The man, whose name was not released, was walked out from the
gorge with the help of emergency services personnel and did not
appear to have any serious injuries.
"When we got down there, the guy had just got onto the rocks
down there," said Capt. Shawn Bates, of the fire department's
rescue unit, who said the man told him he was 39 and from Michigan.
"He swam over to the rocks by himself. He was very co-operative.
He grabbed a hunk of moss and put it in his pocket and said: That's
going to be a souvenir. I don't know if he was thinking quite
right."
The man may be the first person known to have survived after
plunging over the Falls without any safety devices.
That's a miracle, said Lynda Satelmajer, who was sure she was
watching a suicide when she saw the man prepare to go into the
water.
"We thought that he looked odd because he made eye contact with
us and he seemed a bit edgy, kind of jumping around," she said.
Satelmajer said she and her family were standing at the spot
where the man went into the water.
"He walked over to where we were standing and he jumped and
slid down on his backside and went over the brink," she said. "It
was really freaky, actually. He was smiling."
The scene was equally surreal for Lavaughn and Diedre Love, who
were in Niagara Falls to celebrate their first wedding
anniversary.
"The guy just basically jumped in the Falls," Diedre Love
said. "I saw him go over. He didn't yell or anything."
Her husband said the couple had just made their way to the Falls
after watching a movie about the daredevils who had tested the
mighty cataract and failed.
"They did it in a barrel, but this guy went over without a
barrel," he said.
Witnesses said staff on a tour boat attempted to throw the man a
life preserver, but the strong current swept it away.
Somehow the man just swam to the shore, said Satelmajer.
Members of the Niagara Parks police rescue team found the man
and brought him out of the gorge, where he was treated by a medical
team before being taken to Greater Niagara General Hospital.
Hospital spokeswoman Marilyn Bellows said the man was in stable
condition, but declined to provide any additional information about
when he would be released.
Police are investigating the incident. If he did go over the
Falls, the man faces a $10,000 fine.
"We were very, very skeptical that he actually went over the
Falls," said Dave Bredin, the fire department's platoon chief.
Bredin initially believed the man had climbed over the wall of
the deck and got stuck at the shoreline.
"The fall should kill you," Bredin said.
"This guy went over the Falls with nothing on him and he says
he only has a pair of sore ribs? There's no way he would have lived
through that." (Niagara Falls Review)


(Copyright 2003 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

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STAMFORD, Conn. (AP) - Travis, a 170-pound chimpanzee, can do
lots of things humans do. He waters the flowers, enjoys a glass of
wine, brushes his teeth and even watches baseball on television.
But one thing Travis apparently has not mastered is sensing the
best time for play time.
The diaper-wearing chimp bolted from a sport utility vehicle
driven by his owners Sunday night, commandeered an intersection in
the heart of this busy Fairfield County city and held police at bay
for a few hours.
Despite the efforts of officers, who arrived in more than a
dozen cruisers, the chimp continued playing in the middle of the
street, rolling on his back and occasionally charging officers.
"He just wanted to play, but it wasn't the time or place,"
Sandy Herold, who owns Travis with her husband, Jerry, said Monday.
The chimp, when not closing doors on squad cars to prevent being
trapped inside, made occasional runs toward the crowd on all fours.
"He's very strong," Sgt. Richard Phelan said.
By 11:20 p.m. police had succeeded in getting the chimp into its
owners' car. Officers pressed their hands against the doors of the
SUV to hold the chimp inside.
Travis, who is nine years old, was sleeping it off Monday.
"He got up and had breakfast and went back to bed. He's
tired," Herold said.
Travis and his owners will not face charges, police said.
"There is no enforcement action planned," said Assistant Chief
Frank Lagan. "It's the first time it got loose."
A new law requires new owners of such animals to have permits,
but does not apply retroactively, according to David Leff, deputy
commissioner of the state Department of Environmental Protection.
Lynn DellaBianca, the city's animal control officer, said she
plans to contact the owners and advise them to take more
precautions.
"I don't think it's a good idea to be driving around with a
chimpanzee in your car that can easily escape," DellaBianca said.
"An animal like this could easily kill a human."
Lagan and Herold said Travis became agitated when someone threw
something at the car, perhaps a paper cup.
"When this guy threw this, that's what he thought, that it was
part of his play time," Herold said.
Travis is playful and not mean, Herold said. She described the
chimp as almost human and said Travis even mourned when Herold's
daughter was killed in a car accident a few years ago.
"He would take her picture and hold it," she said. "If I cry
he'll lick my tears."
Travis runs his own bath water and prefers ice cream, wine from
a tall-stemmed glass and filet mignon over bananas.
"He likes them, but he's not crazy about them," Herold said,
acknowledging Travis could stand to lose a few pounds.
Travis also feeds hay to the horses near his house in a more
rural part of Stamford. He used to root for the New York Mets when
Stamford native Bobby Valentine was the manager, but now he roots
for the Yankees.
"He loves baseball. He likes anything with action," Herold
said.
Travis will now travel in a more secure van, Herold said. Gone
are the glory days when he would ride in his owner's restored
Corvettes.
"He would wave to people coming down Summer Street," Herold
said. "They were like his cars."

(Copyright 2003 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

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October 21, 2003 -- A company that ordered a stripper to entertain its execs is crying false advertising after the woman turned out to weigh 280 pounds. Officials at B&G Cleaning in Warwickshire, England, said the obese stripper cheerfully told them, "You'll have to make do with me because all the other girls are dropping their kids off at school." A spokesman for the stripper's firm, Beechline, said, "Our information is that a roly-poly was booked, and we will defend any case against us."

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October 21, 2003 -- NIAGARA FALLS, Ontario - For the first time in history, a man survived a plunge over Niagara Falls yesterday with only the clothes on his back to protect him. Witnesses described seeing the man float by in the swift Niagara River, go headfirst over the 180-foot waterfall, and then pull himself out of the water onto rocks below.

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****ed off the boss?

MANILA, Philippines (AP) - The Philippine government press
undersecretary has apologized for urinating while drunk on
President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's chartered jet last month,
newspapers reported Wednesday.
The Philippine Star daily said Heraclio "Rocky" Nazarano
relieved himself near the plane's emergency exit, which he
apparently mistook for a restroom.
Arroyo was on the other side of the plane en route to Manila
from a visit to Paris.
"I deeply apologize about all the shattered expectations," The
Star and Business World daily quoted Nazareno as saying in a cell
phone text message to fellow reporters. "How I wish I could deny
it. But it was one moment of weakness I'm really sorry about.
"The problem is the situation went beyond everybody's
control," said Nazareno, a former reporter.
Press Secretary Milton Alingod told reporters that Nazareno
submitted a request for transfer, but insisted it was done before
the plane incident and was pending Arroyo's approval.

(Copyright 2003 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

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October 22, 2003 --If you think the waterways around Manhattan are yucky, get a load of this. Milwaukee is about to shell out $2 million on a filtering system at a wastewater treatment plant in a bid to stop condoms from floating into Lake Michigan. The issue drew attention when a fisherman saw hundreds of used condoms in the Milwaukee harbor. Since then, the city has paid somebody $460 a day to scoop the spent contraceptives out with long-handled nets.

[DeputyChiefGonzo]

At our city's two wastewater treatment plants, used condoms are known as "sewer trout", plastic tampon applicators are called "beach whistles"...