more weirdo news... >LEAD STORIES > >Legitimate Chinese cricket-fight promoters once again staged their >national championship matches in Beijing in October despite fears from >their >ranks that illegal gambling was ruining their "sport" that has endured for >1,000 years, according to a New York Times dispatch. Thousands of men >descend >on farmers in Shandong province each summer, seeking crickets of the proper >physique and character to endure rough matches inside 8-inch-wide plastic >containers. Matches end when one contestant tries to flee or gets tossed >around hopelessly by the other. > >The University of Surrey (Guildford, England) announced in October >that it was adding to its curriculum in service-sector management by >appointing a professor of airline food. A Surrey official said the school >intended to beef up its graduate and undergraduate course offerings in >in-flight catering and told The Guardian newspaper that the professor would >be >appointed from either the field of gastronomy (how food is served) or the >field of food science (concentrating, for example, on freshness). > >------------------------------------------------------------------------ >Middle Fingers in the News > >Janet Woods, the acting principal of Strong Vincent High School in Erie, >Pa., >angry at reporters' questions about a rumored gun incident, allegedly >displayed a middle finger and told camera operators to "Shoot this!" >(August). >And in Chiang Mai, Thailand, Kamol Kaewmora, 50, recipient of the gesture, >was >arrested and charged with shooting to death the 41-year-old German >motorcyclist who had displayed it to him (August). In August, a state court >in >Lancaster County, Pa., and a federal court in Fayetteville, Ark., dismissed >criminal charges against people who had made the gesture, and the Arkansas >judge in fact ruled the defendant's right to flip the bird at a state >trooper >was protected by the U.S. Constitution. > >------------------------------------------------------------------------ >Oops! > >Newcastle, England, body piercer Lorna Larson accidentally hit a vein >while working on the tongue of Gemma Danielson, 18, in July and by the time >Danielson got to the hospital, she had lost four pints of blood. Said >Danielson, "(Doctors) said they had never seen anything like it." Larson >said >she was mortified: "That's the last tongue I do." > >Joseph Pileggi, 69, filed a lawsuit in Akron, Ohio, in July seeking >money damages over his 1997 marriage to Carli Buchanan, 61. He claims he >intended to marry not Buchanan, but his long-time girlfriend, who is >Buchanan's mother, Ducile Palermo, 83. He claimed that he did not realize >until May 1999 that the "wrong" woman's name was on the license (despite >Buchanan's insistence that Pileggi consummated the marriage with her on the >wedding night). > >Latest Highway Truck Spills: 26 alligator carcasses, weighing nearly >5 tons (headed for a processing plant near Fort Lauderdale, Fla., October); >U.S. Army Multiple Launch rockets (from a military truck, adjacent to an >elementary school near Hugo, Okla., August); and a load of completed >Advanced >Placement tests (being taken from a New York City testing center to >Educational Testing Service in New Jersey, of which 84 were never >recovered, >thus hindering those students' college careers, May). > >------------------------------------------------------------------------ >Adventures in Ignorance > >In August, Davidson, N.C., police officer Scott Searcy asked to search a >woman's car for drugs, giving as his legally required basis ("reasonable >suspicion") solely the fact that on the front seat was a copy of the weekly >newspaper Creative Loafing, whose cover story on local drug enforcement was >illustrated by a photo of a marijuana plant. Said Assistant Chief Butch >Parker, "(Searcy) thinks he had reasonable suspicion, and we do, too." (The >woman consented to the search, and nothing illegal was found.) > >In July, Rev. Nelson W. Koscheski, a delegate from Dallas to the national >Episcopal convention in Denver, was seen scattering salt under the tables >of >openly gay and lesbian delegates. According to some authorities, tossing >the >salt is a symbolic gesture to rid the premises of Satan. After some >participants expressed their outrage, Rev. Koscheski resigned as a >delegate. > >Lisa Alger of Roy, Wash., had to take her claim all the way to state >judge Paul Treyz in June, but she finally got a dismissal of one of the >municipal citations against her for housing an unlicensed cat named >"Patches." >Reason: "Patches" is a stuffed animal. (The local Humane Society monitors >for >violations of licensing law by knocking on doors and asking kids the names >of >their pets, so it can check license lists. When Alger's 7-year-old son >mentioned the highly regarded "Patches," and the Humane Society found no >license for it, it wrote Alger up without investigating.) >------------------------------------------------------------------------ >Payback > >Jail guards employed by the Nova Scotia government had their "privilege" of >being able to eat free in the inmates' dining room taken away in July >because >of budget cuts and must now pay $2.50 to get their prison meal. And >Brazilian >multimillionaire Jair Coelho, 68, was arrested in August and locked up >before >trial; he had made a fortune on the country's jail contracts, supplying >nearly >inedible food, but the government proved that he got the contracts through >bribery, and thus he must now eat his own food. > >------------------------------------------------------------------------ >Recurring Themes > >News of the Weird mentioned in 1999 that the Safety Tanteisha detective >agency >in Osaka, Japan, was selling about 200 aerosol spray kits a month (at $400 >each) to help women find out whether their men are having affairs, by >detecting the presence of fresh semen on their underwear. In July 2000, >according to a Phoenix New Times report, a venerable local medical lab has >introduced Forensex, which charges spouses and lovers from $350 up to test >partners' underwear for semen (hers, to see if sperm is present; his, to >see >if he has ejaculated at inappropriate times). > >------------------------------------------------------------------------ >The Only Way Out > >In August, a 20-year-old man who worked at a landscaping business in >Phoenix >proposed to his girlfriend (she accepted), took her to the worksite, turned >on >a woodchipper, climbed in, and tried to pull her in, too. He was killed, >but >she escaped. Also in August, the style and etiquette columnist for The >Times >of London was found dead, clad only in a shirt, beneath his fourth-floor >apartment window, but colleagues said the suicide scenario was too tacky >for >the man. Said one friend, "(H)e'd have wanted to be really dressed >appropriately." Said the coroner, "It would be likely that he would write a >letter to explain, and no doubt on the Smythson's notepaper that was found >in >the (apartment)." > >------------------------------------------------------------------------ >Also, in the Last Month ... > >The new head of a Hudson River environmental organization, on a >well-publicized maiden kayaking voyage around New York City, discovered a >floating corpse. A Zambian man was granted a divorce after testimony that >his >wife routinely locked him in the bedroom at night to stop his philandering >(Lusaka, Zambia). Police said two burglary suspects, left alone briefly in >a >stationhouse storage/interview room, stole some Twizzlers and the change >from >the office coffee fund box (Albuquerque). Police-dog trainee Ben, let out >of a >squad car on a rural road to relieve himself, picked up the scent of a >nearby, >125-plant marijuana field (Perkins Township, Maine). > _____________________________________________________________________________________ Get more from the Web. FREE MSN Explorer download : http://explorer.msn.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html You may also send subscription requests to [log in to unmask] if you have problems accessing the web interface and remember to write your full name and e-mail address. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------