News of the Weird, January 13, 2013
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Chuck Shepherd
Jan 13, 2013, 1:14:54 PM1/13/13
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WEIRDNUZ.M301 (News of the Weird, January 13, 2013)
by Chuck Shepherd
Copyright 2013 by Chuck Shepherd. All rights reserved.
Lead Story
* The usual 20,000 or so visitors every year to Belgium's Verbeke
Foundation art park have the option (365 of them, anyway) to spend
the night inside the feature attraction: a 20-foot-long, 6-foot-high
polyester replica of a human colon created by Dutch designer Joep
Van Lieshout. At one end, of course, another body part is replicated
(and gives the installation its formal name, the Hotel CasAnus).
The facility, though "cramped," according to one prominent review,
features heating, showers, and double beds and rents for the
equivalent of about $150 a night. The 30-acre art park is regarded
as one of Europe's "edgiest" art destinations. [Huffington Post, 12-
12-2012]
Compelling Explanations
* Giuseppe Tedesco took the witness stand in Newton, N.J., in
December and swore that all five shots that hit his girlfriend Alyssa
Ruggieri (one of them fatal) were "self-defense" "accidents." After
she discovered his .25-caliber handgun in his sofa cushions, he said
he reached for it and in the struggle was shot in the hand, but he still
managed to grip the gun tightly, and the pair tumbled down some
stairs. During the struggle, "both' hands shot Ruggieri twice.
Despite their injuries, they both maintained their vice-like grips on
the gun, he said, and "they" shot Ruggieri twice more. The final
shot, he said, came with Ruggieri holding the gun point-blank at his
face, and when he pushed it away, "they" fired another shot that hit
Ruggieri in the temple. Tedesco was convicted in January.
[Star-Ledger (Newark), 12-19-2012; New Jersey Herald, 1-10-2013]
* The issues director of the fundamentalist American Family
Association told his radio audience in November that God's feelings
will be hurt if America stops using fossil fuels for energy. "God has
buried those treasures there because he loves to see us find them,"
said Bryan Fischer, who described Americans' campaigns against
fossil fuels as similar to the time when Fischer, at age six, told a
birthday-present donor that he didn't like his gift. "And it just
crushed that person." [AFA "Focal Point," 11-29-2012, via Raw
Story.com]
* Re-trials and appeals are sometimes granted if a convicted
criminal demonstrates that he received "ineffective assistance of
counsel." Among the reasons that the lawyer for convicted Joliet,
Ill., quadruple-murderer Christopher Vaughn offered in his
November motion was the ineptness of other lawyers (but not
himself). Specifically, he argued, the lawyers for the convicted
wife-killing police officer Drew Peterson gave such disgusting press
interviews that all defense lawyers were defamed. (The website
LoweringTheBar.net pointed out that Vaughn lawyer George
Lenard himself violated a lawyers' "kitchen sink" standard by
overlisting 51 separate reasons why his client deserved a new trial.)
[Chicago Tribune, 11-26-2012; LoweringTheBar.net, 11-27-2012]
Chutzpah!
* Mauricio Fierro gained instant fame in December in Sao Paulo,
Brazil, as the reported victim of a car theft (captured on surveillance
video) when he dashed into a pharmacy. He went to a police station
to file a report but encountered the pharmacy owner making his own
report--that Fierro was actually robbing him at the moment the car
was taken. More surveillance video revealed that while Fierro was
standing outside the pharmacy, wondering where his car was, a man
ran by and stole the stolen cash. Fierro then immoderately
complained to the police even more about Sao Paulo's crime rate
and lack of security. Afterward, Fierro admitted to a local news
website that in fact he had stolen the very car that he was reporting
stolen. [New York Daily News, 12-13-2012]
The Continuing Crisis
* Former undercover cop Mark Kennedy filed for damages in
October against the London Metropolitan police, claiming post-
traumatic stress syndrome based on the department's "negligence"
in allowing him to have such a robust sex life on the job that he fell
in love with a woman whose organization he was infiltrating.
Kennedy's wife has filed for divorce and is also suing the
department, and 10 women (including three of Kennedy's former
lovers) have also filed claims. [The Guardian, 11-25-2012]
* Sarah Childs won a restraining order in Denham Springs, La., in
December, forbidding the town from shutting down her "Christmas"
lights decoration. The large outdoor display (in a neighborhood
with traditional Christmas displays) was the image of two hands
with middle fingers extended. [WAFB-TV (Baton Rouge, La.), 12-
21-2012]
* In a 3-2 decision, the Board of Adjustment in the Seattle suburb of
Clyde Hill ruled that a homeowner must chop down two large,
elegant trees on his property because they obstruct a neighbor's
scenic view of Seattle's skyline. The Board's majority reasoned
that the complaining neighbor (who happens to be former baseball
star John Olerud) would otherwise suffer a $255,000 devaluation
of his $4 million estate. (Olerud was ordered to pay for the tree
removal and to plant the neighbor two smaller trees in place of the
majestic ones). [Seattle Times, 11-8-2012]
People With Issues
* (1) New York's highest court ruled in November that subway
"grinders" (men who masturbate by rubbing up against women on
trains) cannot be charged with felonies as long as they don't use
force to restrain their victims (but only commit misdemeanors that
usually result in no jail time). (2) Police in Phuket, Thailand,
announced that their all-points search for a public masturbator who
harassed a restaurant's staff had produced no suspects--although a
spokesman said they did find "a few people [nearby] who were
masturbating in their vehicles, but none of them were the man we
are looking for." [New York Daily News, 9-17-2012] [Phuket
Gazette, 10-4-2012]
Perspective
* Update: Four months has passed since News of the Weird
mentioned that at least 60 North Carolina prisoners have been
improperly incarcerated--legally innocent based on a 2011 federal
appeals court decision. (Still others are at least owed sentence-
reduction because they had been convicted of offenses in addition to
the incorrect one.) A June USA Today story revealed the injustice,
and the federal government took until August to release holds on the
inmates, but since then, only 44 of the estimated 175 affected
prisoners have been correctly adjudicated. USA Today reported in
December that the recent delay has been because of the obstinance
of some North Carolina federal judges, including cases involving
citizens by now wrongfully locked up for more than 18 months.
[USA Today, 12-26-2012]
Least Competent Parking Enforcers
* (1) The week before Christmas, a Nottingham, England, officer
wrote parking tickets to drivers of two ambulances that were taking
too long to board wheelchair-using schoolchildren who had just
sung carols for an hour downtown to raise money for the homeless
shelter Emmanuel House. (Following an outpouring of complaints,
the Nottingham City Council revoked the tickets.) (2) An
ambulance on call, with lights and siren, pulled into the parking lot
of Quicky's convenience store in New Orleans in November to treat
a customer, but one employee nonetheless obeyed what he believed
to be his employer's no-parking rule and applied an immobilizing
"boot" to the ambulance. The man, Ahmed Sidi Aleywa, was later
fired. A co-worker said Aleywa was an immigrant who had said he
was not familiar with "ambulances." [Nottingham Post, 12-19-
2012] [WWL-TV (New Orleans), 11-30-2012, 12-3-2012]
Least Competent Criminals
* Recurring Themes: (1) Marquis Diggs, 29, entering the county
administration building in Jersey City, N.J., in December for a
hearing in family court over his mother's restraining order against
him, became the most recent drug possessor not to have realized
that he might be subjected to a search. Police confiscated 32
baggies of "suspected marijuana." (2) Cleland Ayison, 32, got a
sentencing break in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., in December when
federal judge William Dimitrouleas pitied him. Ayison got only
house arrest and community service because his crime--trying to
pass a U.S. Federal Reserve note with a face value of $500 million--
was so "silly." [Jersey Journal, 12-18-2012] [South Florida Sun-
Sentinel, 12-4-2012]
Readers' Choice
* Ironies: (1) A 20-year-old man's life ended when he was shot to
death in an altercation in San Bernardino, Calif., on Friday,
December 21st, while attending a Mayan-inspired "End of the
World" party. (2) The next night, in Fort Worth, Tex., a 47-year-
old drummer collapsed of a seizure and died onstage. He had
played with several bands, including Rigor Mortis. [KCBS-TV (Los
Angeles), 12-25-2012] [Rolling Stone via NBC News, 12-25-2012]
Thanks This Week to Bruce Leiserowitz, Gary DaSilva, and
Gerald Sacks, to the News of the Weird Senior Advisors (Jenny T.
Beatty, Paul Di Filippo, Ginger Katz, Joe Littrell, Matt Mirapaul,
Paul Music, Karl Olson, and Jim Sweeney) and Board of Editorial
Advisors (Tom Barker, Paul Blumstein, Harry Farkas, Sam Gaines,
Herb Jue, Emory Kimbrough, Scott Langill, Steve Miller,
Christopher Nalty, Mark Neunder, Bob Pert, Larry Ellis Reed, Rob
Snyder, Stephen Taylor, Bruce Townley, and Jerry Whittle).
* * * * *
WeirdNews at earthlink dot net, http://www.NewsoftheWeird.net
(almost daily), and P.O. Box 18737, Tampa FL 33679.
by Chuck Shepherd
Copyright 2013 by Chuck Shepherd. All rights reserved.
Lead Story
* The usual 20,000 or so visitors every year to Belgium's Verbeke
Foundation art park have the option (365 of them, anyway) to spend
the night inside the feature attraction: a 20-foot-long, 6-foot-high
polyester replica of a human colon created by Dutch designer Joep
Van Lieshout. At one end, of course, another body part is replicated
(and gives the installation its formal name, the Hotel CasAnus).
The facility, though "cramped," according to one prominent review,
features heating, showers, and double beds and rents for the
equivalent of about $150 a night. The 30-acre art park is regarded
as one of Europe's "edgiest" art destinations. [Huffington Post, 12-
12-2012]
Compelling Explanations
* Giuseppe Tedesco took the witness stand in Newton, N.J., in
December and swore that all five shots that hit his girlfriend Alyssa
Ruggieri (one of them fatal) were "self-defense" "accidents." After
she discovered his .25-caliber handgun in his sofa cushions, he said
he reached for it and in the struggle was shot in the hand, but he still
managed to grip the gun tightly, and the pair tumbled down some
stairs. During the struggle, "both' hands shot Ruggieri twice.
Despite their injuries, they both maintained their vice-like grips on
the gun, he said, and "they" shot Ruggieri twice more. The final
shot, he said, came with Ruggieri holding the gun point-blank at his
face, and when he pushed it away, "they" fired another shot that hit
Ruggieri in the temple. Tedesco was convicted in January.
[Star-Ledger (Newark), 12-19-2012; New Jersey Herald, 1-10-2013]
* The issues director of the fundamentalist American Family
Association told his radio audience in November that God's feelings
will be hurt if America stops using fossil fuels for energy. "God has
buried those treasures there because he loves to see us find them,"
said Bryan Fischer, who described Americans' campaigns against
fossil fuels as similar to the time when Fischer, at age six, told a
birthday-present donor that he didn't like his gift. "And it just
crushed that person." [AFA "Focal Point," 11-29-2012, via Raw
Story.com]
* Re-trials and appeals are sometimes granted if a convicted
criminal demonstrates that he received "ineffective assistance of
counsel." Among the reasons that the lawyer for convicted Joliet,
Ill., quadruple-murderer Christopher Vaughn offered in his
November motion was the ineptness of other lawyers (but not
himself). Specifically, he argued, the lawyers for the convicted
wife-killing police officer Drew Peterson gave such disgusting press
interviews that all defense lawyers were defamed. (The website
LoweringTheBar.net pointed out that Vaughn lawyer George
Lenard himself violated a lawyers' "kitchen sink" standard by
overlisting 51 separate reasons why his client deserved a new trial.)
[Chicago Tribune, 11-26-2012; LoweringTheBar.net, 11-27-2012]
Chutzpah!
* Mauricio Fierro gained instant fame in December in Sao Paulo,
Brazil, as the reported victim of a car theft (captured on surveillance
video) when he dashed into a pharmacy. He went to a police station
to file a report but encountered the pharmacy owner making his own
report--that Fierro was actually robbing him at the moment the car
was taken. More surveillance video revealed that while Fierro was
standing outside the pharmacy, wondering where his car was, a man
ran by and stole the stolen cash. Fierro then immoderately
complained to the police even more about Sao Paulo's crime rate
and lack of security. Afterward, Fierro admitted to a local news
website that in fact he had stolen the very car that he was reporting
stolen. [New York Daily News, 12-13-2012]
The Continuing Crisis
* Former undercover cop Mark Kennedy filed for damages in
October against the London Metropolitan police, claiming post-
traumatic stress syndrome based on the department's "negligence"
in allowing him to have such a robust sex life on the job that he fell
in love with a woman whose organization he was infiltrating.
Kennedy's wife has filed for divorce and is also suing the
department, and 10 women (including three of Kennedy's former
lovers) have also filed claims. [The Guardian, 11-25-2012]
* Sarah Childs won a restraining order in Denham Springs, La., in
December, forbidding the town from shutting down her "Christmas"
lights decoration. The large outdoor display (in a neighborhood
with traditional Christmas displays) was the image of two hands
with middle fingers extended. [WAFB-TV (Baton Rouge, La.), 12-
21-2012]
* In a 3-2 decision, the Board of Adjustment in the Seattle suburb of
Clyde Hill ruled that a homeowner must chop down two large,
elegant trees on his property because they obstruct a neighbor's
scenic view of Seattle's skyline. The Board's majority reasoned
that the complaining neighbor (who happens to be former baseball
star John Olerud) would otherwise suffer a $255,000 devaluation
of his $4 million estate. (Olerud was ordered to pay for the tree
removal and to plant the neighbor two smaller trees in place of the
majestic ones). [Seattle Times, 11-8-2012]
People With Issues
* (1) New York's highest court ruled in November that subway
"grinders" (men who masturbate by rubbing up against women on
trains) cannot be charged with felonies as long as they don't use
force to restrain their victims (but only commit misdemeanors that
usually result in no jail time). (2) Police in Phuket, Thailand,
announced that their all-points search for a public masturbator who
harassed a restaurant's staff had produced no suspects--although a
spokesman said they did find "a few people [nearby] who were
masturbating in their vehicles, but none of them were the man we
are looking for." [New York Daily News, 9-17-2012] [Phuket
Gazette, 10-4-2012]
Perspective
* Update: Four months has passed since News of the Weird
mentioned that at least 60 North Carolina prisoners have been
improperly incarcerated--legally innocent based on a 2011 federal
appeals court decision. (Still others are at least owed sentence-
reduction because they had been convicted of offenses in addition to
the incorrect one.) A June USA Today story revealed the injustice,
and the federal government took until August to release holds on the
inmates, but since then, only 44 of the estimated 175 affected
prisoners have been correctly adjudicated. USA Today reported in
December that the recent delay has been because of the obstinance
of some North Carolina federal judges, including cases involving
citizens by now wrongfully locked up for more than 18 months.
[USA Today, 12-26-2012]
Least Competent Parking Enforcers
* (1) The week before Christmas, a Nottingham, England, officer
wrote parking tickets to drivers of two ambulances that were taking
too long to board wheelchair-using schoolchildren who had just
sung carols for an hour downtown to raise money for the homeless
shelter Emmanuel House. (Following an outpouring of complaints,
the Nottingham City Council revoked the tickets.) (2) An
ambulance on call, with lights and siren, pulled into the parking lot
of Quicky's convenience store in New Orleans in November to treat
a customer, but one employee nonetheless obeyed what he believed
to be his employer's no-parking rule and applied an immobilizing
"boot" to the ambulance. The man, Ahmed Sidi Aleywa, was later
fired. A co-worker said Aleywa was an immigrant who had said he
was not familiar with "ambulances." [Nottingham Post, 12-19-
2012] [WWL-TV (New Orleans), 11-30-2012, 12-3-2012]
Least Competent Criminals
* Recurring Themes: (1) Marquis Diggs, 29, entering the county
administration building in Jersey City, N.J., in December for a
hearing in family court over his mother's restraining order against
him, became the most recent drug possessor not to have realized
that he might be subjected to a search. Police confiscated 32
baggies of "suspected marijuana." (2) Cleland Ayison, 32, got a
sentencing break in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., in December when
federal judge William Dimitrouleas pitied him. Ayison got only
house arrest and community service because his crime--trying to
pass a U.S. Federal Reserve note with a face value of $500 million--
was so "silly." [Jersey Journal, 12-18-2012] [South Florida Sun-
Sentinel, 12-4-2012]
Readers' Choice
* Ironies: (1) A 20-year-old man's life ended when he was shot to
death in an altercation in San Bernardino, Calif., on Friday,
December 21st, while attending a Mayan-inspired "End of the
World" party. (2) The next night, in Fort Worth, Tex., a 47-year-
old drummer collapsed of a seizure and died onstage. He had
played with several bands, including Rigor Mortis. [KCBS-TV (Los
Angeles), 12-25-2012] [Rolling Stone via NBC News, 12-25-2012]
Thanks This Week to Bruce Leiserowitz, Gary DaSilva, and
Gerald Sacks, to the News of the Weird Senior Advisors (Jenny T.
Beatty, Paul Di Filippo, Ginger Katz, Joe Littrell, Matt Mirapaul,
Paul Music, Karl Olson, and Jim Sweeney) and Board of Editorial
Advisors (Tom Barker, Paul Blumstein, Harry Farkas, Sam Gaines,
Herb Jue, Emory Kimbrough, Scott Langill, Steve Miller,
Christopher Nalty, Mark Neunder, Bob Pert, Larry Ellis Reed, Rob
Snyder, Stephen Taylor, Bruce Townley, and Jerry Whittle).
* * * * *
WeirdNews at earthlink dot net, http://www.NewsoftheWeird.net
(almost daily), and P.O. Box 18737, Tampa FL 33679.
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