News of the Weird, May 19, 2013
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Chuck Shepherd
May 19, 2013, 9:45:30 AM5/19/13
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WEIRDNUZ.M319 (News of the Weird, May 19, 2013)
by Chuck Shepherd
Lead Story
* The beauty pageant each April at the Rattlesnake Roundup in
Sweetwater, Tex., requires traditional skills like interview poise,
evening-gown fashion, and talent, but also some ability and
inclination to milk and skin rattlers. High school senior Kyndra
Vaught won this year's Miss Snake Charmer, wearing jeweled boots
one night for her country and western ballad, then Kevlar boots and
camouflage chaps the next as she took on dozens of rattlers in the
wooden snake pit. Vaught expertly held up one serpent, offered its
tail-end rattles for a baby to touch, then helped hold, measure, milk,
and skin a buzzing, slithery serpent. A Los Angeles Times dispatch
noted that Vaught hoped to be on her way soon to the Berklee
College of Music in Boston. [Los Angeles Times, 4-12-2013]
The Continuing Crisis
* That there are flea "circuses" is bizarre enough, but in March a
cold spell in Germany wiped out an entire troup of "performing"
fleas, requiring the flea whisperer to secure replacements (because,
of course, the show must go on). Trainer Robert Birk reached out to
a university near Mechernich-Kommern for 50 substitutes, which he
apparently worked into the act over one weekend. (Fleas, with or
without training, can pull up to 160,000 times their own weight and
leap to 100 times their own height.) The Independent (London), 3-
31-2013]
* The owner of a restaurant in southern Sweden told authorities in
March that the former owner had assured him that "everything had
been approved," apparently including the appliance the restaurant
used for mixing salad dressings and sauces--which was a table-
model cement mixer. When health officials told the owner that that
certainly was not "approved," he immediately bought another, "rust-
free," mixer. (Health authorities had come to the restaurant on a
complaint that a screw had turned up in a customer's kabob.) [The
Local (Stockholm), 3-30-2013]
Modern Anglers
* Chad Pregracke, 38, a Mississippi River legend, spends nine
months a year hauling heavy-duty litter out of waterways with his
crew of 12. He told CNN in March that he has yanked up 218
washing machines, 19 tractors, four pianos, and nearly 1,000
refrigerators--totaling over 3,500 tons of trash--and has collected the
world's largest array of bottles-with-messages-inside (63). [CNN, 4-
18-2013]
* Eliel Santos fishes the grates of New York City seven days a
week, reeling in enough bounty to sustain him for the last eight
years, he told the New York Post in April. The "fishing line"
Santos, 38, uses is dental floss, with electrician's tape and Blue-
Touch mouse glue--equipment that "he controls with the precision
of an archer," the Post reported. His biggest catch ever was a
$1,800 (pawned value) gold and diamond bracelet, but the most
popular current items are iPhones, which texting-on-the-move
pedestrians apparently have trouble hanging onto. [New York Post,
4-28-2013]
Oops!
* Tyshekka Collier, 36, was arrested in Spartanburg, S.C., in March
after she had rushed to her son's elementary school after a call that
he was suspended. As she burst into the office, angry at her son for
getting into trouble, she saw a pouting boy with his head down and
slapped him, thinking he was hers. He wasn't. (After apologizing,
she then managed to locate her son and promptly slapped him
around. [WYFF-TV (Greenville), 3-28-2013]
* When Evan Ebel was killed in a roadside shootout in March, it
was clear that he was the man who had days earlier gunned down
the head of the Colorado prison system (and his wife) at the front
door of their home and then fled (and killed another man while on
the lam). Ebel should not even have been free at the time, having
been accidentally released from prison in January only because a
judge's assistant had mistakenly marked Ebel's multiple prison
terms to be served "concurrently" instead of one following the other
("consecutively"). (The supervising judge "extend[ed]
condolences" to the families of the Ebel's victims.) [Reuters, 4-1-
2013]
Bright Ideas
* Apparently feeling feisty after a successful stint in February
hosting the Bassmaster Classic, local officials in Tulsa, Okla.,
announced in April that they were considering preparing a bid for
the 2024 Summer Olympics. (The Winter Olympics sometimes gets
awarded to small venues, but never the Summer ones.) [Associated
Press via ABC News, 4-27-2013]
* The Discovery Channel announced a new survival show to debut
this summer, "Naked and Afraid," dropping off a man and a woman
(strangers), without tools or clothes, to fend for themselves on an
isolated Maldives island. Among the previews: Ms. Kellie
Nightlinger, 38, a self-described "ultimate survivalist," finally
thought after two weeks of nearly starving that she could attract fish
close enough to be snatched up (as a New York Daily News reporter
put it) "us[ing] her ladyparts as bait to catch fish between her legs."
Said a Discovery Channel executive, "Survival shows are so
common now that it's gotten more and more difficult to convince
the audience that what they're watching is something extreme."
[New York Daily News, 4-14-2013]
Perspective
* Location, Location, Location: The New Delhi, India,
neighborhood of Lutyens' Delhi houses some of the richest people
in the country in comparatively modest mansions, with the city's
real estate bubble inflating sales prices into nine figures, though
home sales are rare, according to a March New York Times
dispatch. In the similarly wealthy city of Hong Kong, in the "gritty,
working-class West Kowloon neighborhood" where the laborers
serving the rich live, about 100,000 dwell in pitiable housing,
including the increasing number who rent what are basically stacks
of wire sleep cages, measuring about 16 square feet each (and
offering no protection against bedbugs). An Associated Press
reporter found one tenant paying the equivalent of about $167 a
month for his mesh digs. [New York Times, 3-3-2013] [Associated
Press, 2-7-2013]
People With Issues
* Finally, Herson Torres was freed. As Bloomberg Business Week
reported step-by-step in April, Torres was recruited by a "Defense
Intelligence Agency operative" to rob a Virginia bank in order to
test first-responder reaction times. If caught, Torres's arrest would
be removed, said "Theo," the operative. The skeptical Torres asked
advice of various authority figures, including two bemused lawyers,
but "Theo" was able to calm them all with a dazzling display of
CIA jargon and procedures. Torres was indeed arrested, and
"Theo" indeed sprang him (but with a judicial order that was
forged.) Ultimately, "Theo" was revealed to be frustrated
computer-techie Matthew Brady, 26, who lives with his mother and
grandmother in Matoaca, Va., and despite his obviously world-class
bluffing skill, he pleaded guilty in May and was ordered treated for
his paranoid schizophrenia and delusional disorder. [Bloomberg
Business Week, 4-18-2013]
No Longer Weird
* Even the editor of News of the Weird gets bored: (1) A man in
his 70s in Burnaby, British Columbia, was rescued in January after
being pinned for three days under fallen debris inside his seriously
cluttered home (with "ceiling-high mounds of garbage," wrote the
Canadian Press). (Ho-hum.) (2) In Lianjiang City, China, in
January, Peng Xinhua, 101, joined a long line of returns-from-the-
dead. Following a fall, she had become stiff and without a
heartbeat, her two daughters said, and burial was scheduled. Just
before the funeral, as relatives and friends were washing her body,
Peng opened her eyes and calmly greeted them. [Canadian Press via
Canadian Broadcasting Corp., 1-15-2013] [Shanghai Daily, 1-24-
2013]
Readers' Choice
* (1) A 5-year-old boy in rural Cumberland County, Ky.,
accidentally shot and killed his 2-year-old sister in April, firing his
own .22-caliber rifle. The weapon (a "Crickett") is marketed as
"My First Rifle" by the Keystone Sporting Arms company. (2)
Henry Gribbohm, 30, admitted in April that he had blown his
$2,600 life savings trying to win an Xbox at a rigged ball-toss game
at a Manchester, N.H., carnival, lamenting to WBZ-TV, "For once
in my life, I happened to become that sucker." (Gribbohm
complained to the operator, but was given only a large stuffed
banana as consolation. However, when news broke, an Internet
website took up a collection and purchased the banana from him for
$2,600.) [Louisville Courier-Journal via USA Today, 5-2-2013]
[WBZ-TV (Boston), 5-6-2013]
Thanks This Week to Sandy Pearlman, Susan Fowler-Nice,
and Paul Peterson, and to the News of the Weird Board of Editorial
Advisors.
* * * * *
WeirdUniverse dot net, NewsoftheWeird dot com, and P.O. Box
18737, Tampa FL 33679.
by Chuck Shepherd
Lead Story
* The beauty pageant each April at the Rattlesnake Roundup in
Sweetwater, Tex., requires traditional skills like interview poise,
evening-gown fashion, and talent, but also some ability and
inclination to milk and skin rattlers. High school senior Kyndra
Vaught won this year's Miss Snake Charmer, wearing jeweled boots
one night for her country and western ballad, then Kevlar boots and
camouflage chaps the next as she took on dozens of rattlers in the
wooden snake pit. Vaught expertly held up one serpent, offered its
tail-end rattles for a baby to touch, then helped hold, measure, milk,
and skin a buzzing, slithery serpent. A Los Angeles Times dispatch
noted that Vaught hoped to be on her way soon to the Berklee
College of Music in Boston. [Los Angeles Times, 4-12-2013]
The Continuing Crisis
* That there are flea "circuses" is bizarre enough, but in March a
cold spell in Germany wiped out an entire troup of "performing"
fleas, requiring the flea whisperer to secure replacements (because,
of course, the show must go on). Trainer Robert Birk reached out to
a university near Mechernich-Kommern for 50 substitutes, which he
apparently worked into the act over one weekend. (Fleas, with or
without training, can pull up to 160,000 times their own weight and
leap to 100 times their own height.) The Independent (London), 3-
31-2013]
* The owner of a restaurant in southern Sweden told authorities in
March that the former owner had assured him that "everything had
been approved," apparently including the appliance the restaurant
used for mixing salad dressings and sauces--which was a table-
model cement mixer. When health officials told the owner that that
certainly was not "approved," he immediately bought another, "rust-
free," mixer. (Health authorities had come to the restaurant on a
complaint that a screw had turned up in a customer's kabob.) [The
Local (Stockholm), 3-30-2013]
Modern Anglers
* Chad Pregracke, 38, a Mississippi River legend, spends nine
months a year hauling heavy-duty litter out of waterways with his
crew of 12. He told CNN in March that he has yanked up 218
washing machines, 19 tractors, four pianos, and nearly 1,000
refrigerators--totaling over 3,500 tons of trash--and has collected the
world's largest array of bottles-with-messages-inside (63). [CNN, 4-
18-2013]
* Eliel Santos fishes the grates of New York City seven days a
week, reeling in enough bounty to sustain him for the last eight
years, he told the New York Post in April. The "fishing line"
Santos, 38, uses is dental floss, with electrician's tape and Blue-
Touch mouse glue--equipment that "he controls with the precision
of an archer," the Post reported. His biggest catch ever was a
$1,800 (pawned value) gold and diamond bracelet, but the most
popular current items are iPhones, which texting-on-the-move
pedestrians apparently have trouble hanging onto. [New York Post,
4-28-2013]
Oops!
* Tyshekka Collier, 36, was arrested in Spartanburg, S.C., in March
after she had rushed to her son's elementary school after a call that
he was suspended. As she burst into the office, angry at her son for
getting into trouble, she saw a pouting boy with his head down and
slapped him, thinking he was hers. He wasn't. (After apologizing,
she then managed to locate her son and promptly slapped him
around. [WYFF-TV (Greenville), 3-28-2013]
* When Evan Ebel was killed in a roadside shootout in March, it
was clear that he was the man who had days earlier gunned down
the head of the Colorado prison system (and his wife) at the front
door of their home and then fled (and killed another man while on
the lam). Ebel should not even have been free at the time, having
been accidentally released from prison in January only because a
judge's assistant had mistakenly marked Ebel's multiple prison
terms to be served "concurrently" instead of one following the other
("consecutively"). (The supervising judge "extend[ed]
condolences" to the families of the Ebel's victims.) [Reuters, 4-1-
2013]
Bright Ideas
* Apparently feeling feisty after a successful stint in February
hosting the Bassmaster Classic, local officials in Tulsa, Okla.,
announced in April that they were considering preparing a bid for
the 2024 Summer Olympics. (The Winter Olympics sometimes gets
awarded to small venues, but never the Summer ones.) [Associated
Press via ABC News, 4-27-2013]
* The Discovery Channel announced a new survival show to debut
this summer, "Naked and Afraid," dropping off a man and a woman
(strangers), without tools or clothes, to fend for themselves on an
isolated Maldives island. Among the previews: Ms. Kellie
Nightlinger, 38, a self-described "ultimate survivalist," finally
thought after two weeks of nearly starving that she could attract fish
close enough to be snatched up (as a New York Daily News reporter
put it) "us[ing] her ladyparts as bait to catch fish between her legs."
Said a Discovery Channel executive, "Survival shows are so
common now that it's gotten more and more difficult to convince
the audience that what they're watching is something extreme."
[New York Daily News, 4-14-2013]
Perspective
* Location, Location, Location: The New Delhi, India,
neighborhood of Lutyens' Delhi houses some of the richest people
in the country in comparatively modest mansions, with the city's
real estate bubble inflating sales prices into nine figures, though
home sales are rare, according to a March New York Times
dispatch. In the similarly wealthy city of Hong Kong, in the "gritty,
working-class West Kowloon neighborhood" where the laborers
serving the rich live, about 100,000 dwell in pitiable housing,
including the increasing number who rent what are basically stacks
of wire sleep cages, measuring about 16 square feet each (and
offering no protection against bedbugs). An Associated Press
reporter found one tenant paying the equivalent of about $167 a
month for his mesh digs. [New York Times, 3-3-2013] [Associated
Press, 2-7-2013]
People With Issues
* Finally, Herson Torres was freed. As Bloomberg Business Week
reported step-by-step in April, Torres was recruited by a "Defense
Intelligence Agency operative" to rob a Virginia bank in order to
test first-responder reaction times. If caught, Torres's arrest would
be removed, said "Theo," the operative. The skeptical Torres asked
advice of various authority figures, including two bemused lawyers,
but "Theo" was able to calm them all with a dazzling display of
CIA jargon and procedures. Torres was indeed arrested, and
"Theo" indeed sprang him (but with a judicial order that was
forged.) Ultimately, "Theo" was revealed to be frustrated
computer-techie Matthew Brady, 26, who lives with his mother and
grandmother in Matoaca, Va., and despite his obviously world-class
bluffing skill, he pleaded guilty in May and was ordered treated for
his paranoid schizophrenia and delusional disorder. [Bloomberg
Business Week, 4-18-2013]
No Longer Weird
* Even the editor of News of the Weird gets bored: (1) A man in
his 70s in Burnaby, British Columbia, was rescued in January after
being pinned for three days under fallen debris inside his seriously
cluttered home (with "ceiling-high mounds of garbage," wrote the
Canadian Press). (Ho-hum.) (2) In Lianjiang City, China, in
January, Peng Xinhua, 101, joined a long line of returns-from-the-
dead. Following a fall, she had become stiff and without a
heartbeat, her two daughters said, and burial was scheduled. Just
before the funeral, as relatives and friends were washing her body,
Peng opened her eyes and calmly greeted them. [Canadian Press via
Canadian Broadcasting Corp., 1-15-2013] [Shanghai Daily, 1-24-
2013]
Readers' Choice
* (1) A 5-year-old boy in rural Cumberland County, Ky.,
accidentally shot and killed his 2-year-old sister in April, firing his
own .22-caliber rifle. The weapon (a "Crickett") is marketed as
"My First Rifle" by the Keystone Sporting Arms company. (2)
Henry Gribbohm, 30, admitted in April that he had blown his
$2,600 life savings trying to win an Xbox at a rigged ball-toss game
at a Manchester, N.H., carnival, lamenting to WBZ-TV, "For once
in my life, I happened to become that sucker." (Gribbohm
complained to the operator, but was given only a large stuffed
banana as consolation. However, when news broke, an Internet
website took up a collection and purchased the banana from him for
$2,600.) [Louisville Courier-Journal via USA Today, 5-2-2013]
[WBZ-TV (Boston), 5-6-2013]
Thanks This Week to Sandy Pearlman, Susan Fowler-Nice,
and Paul Peterson, and to the News of the Weird Board of Editorial
Advisors.
* * * * *
WeirdUniverse dot net, NewsoftheWeird dot com, and P.O. Box
18737, Tampa FL 33679.
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