News of the Weird, May 27, 2012
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Chuck Shepherd
May 27, 2012, 8:07:30 AM5/27/12
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WEIRDNUZ.M268 (News of the Weird, May 27, 2012)
by Chuck Shepherd
Copyright 2012 by Chuck Shepherd. All rights reserved.
Lead Story
* Dr. Oliver Di Pietro of Bay Harbor Islands, Fla., is a leading
prescriber of the "K-E diet" that offers desperate people a drastic
short-term weight loss by threading a feeding tube through the nose
to the stomach and dripping in a protein-fat solution, as clients' only
"meals," for 10 straight days. "Within a few hours," Dr. Di Pietro
told ABC's "Good Morning America" in April, "your hunger and
appetite go away completely." Fat is burned through "ketosis," he
said, and a loss of 10 to 20 pounds in 10 days is possible. Such
short-term loss might be important, for example, for a woman
prepping for her wedding day. One client said she doesn't have "all
of the time on the planet" just to exercise, "so I came to the doctor."
[Good Morning America via Yahoo News, 4-16-2012]
Government in Action!
* The late Pennsylvania Congressman John Murtha was a Capitol
Hill powerhouse, and among his legacies is the federally-funded
airport in his district that largely served him and the local
companies heading to Washington, D.C., to lobby for government
contracts. (The less-convenient Pittsburgh airport is 55 miles
away.) Murtha died in 2010, but the airport (which cost $150
million in "earmarked" funds to build, upgrade, and maintain) still,
according to an April Yahoo News dispatch, handles only three
flights a day, all from Washington, D.C., and about $100 of every
passenger's ticket is subsidized by the federal government. [Yahoo
News, 4-3-2012]
* Officials in Burnsville, Minn., have brought the full force of the
law to bear upon Mitch Faber (who was arrested, forced to pay a
high bail, and released under electronic monitoring and only on
condition of drug testing), whom they have charged with the crime
of not putting proper siding on his house. According to a March
report on KSTP-TV, Faber said he started re-siding, but when the
economy turned bad in 2008, he stopped, assuming that the worst he
could eventually suffer would be a fine. [KSTP-TV (St. Paul), 3-23-
2012]
Great Architecture!
* There are big plans in the city of Chiang Rai, Thailand, for a
massive Buddhist temple that priests aim to make one of the most
beautiful structures in the world, and have entrusted Chalermchai
Kositpipat to design it, in all-white with glittering glass and
arrangements of "rich symbolism derived from Buddhist and Hindu
traditions." If Kositpipat has his way, according to an April
Huffington Post dispatch, the temple will also have images of
Superman, Batman, and (from the movie "The Matrix") Neo--all of
which, Kositpipat said, further Lord Buddha's "message."
[Huffington Post, 4-26-2012]
* Architect Sou Fujimoto recently unveiled his public restroom (for
women only, though) whose one transparency-enclosed toilet sits in
a 2,160-square-foot private garden of cherry, plum, and peach trees.
The six-foot-high-walled park is located beside a railway station in
Ichihara City, east of Tokyo. Japan is a world leader in fanciful
toilets, and Fujimoto said he thought the scenery would enhance the
user's "feeling of release." [Japan Broadcasting Corporation via
CNET News, 4-14-2012]
The Aristocrat!
* Kelly Ervin, 48, was arrested in Salisbury, Md., in April and
charged with littering contents of "under 100 pounds." According
to police, Ervin routinely goes for a run every morning at 4 o'clock,
and just as routinely, has a bowel movement after about two miles.
Most days, that puts him in a certain neighborhood, whose residents
have been complaining. When questioned, according to a Salisbury
Daily Times reporter, Ervin basically shrugged and said he thought
many distance runners do the same thing. [Salisbury Daily Times,
4-19-2012]
Police Report
* In March, Jose Romero-Valenzuela, 34, in a hurry to get to the
courthouse in Oregon City, Ore., for a hearing on drug charges,
managed to pick up three speeding tickets on Interstate 84, one right
after the other within the space of an hour. A sheriff's deputy and
two different state troopers charged him with speeds in excess of 92
mph. (Another trooper, specifically monitoring Romero-Valenzuela
after the third stop, reported that, finally, he obeyed the speed limit.)
[The Oregonian, 3-8-2012]
* William Todd arrived in Nashville, Tenn., on April 9th via
Greyhound bus and faced a nine-hour layover. According to police,
Todd committed at least 11 felonies during that time, one after
another, with more charges still possible. Among Todd's alleged
diversions: shooting up a restaurant, setting it on fire, robbing four
people at a bar, carjacking, breaking into a law office and defecating
on a desk, trolling hotel rooms seeking theft opportunities, and
stealing a taxicab and robbing the driver. Said a police sergeant,
"I've never seen anything like this before." He was finally captured
at Opryland, where he had hidden by submerging himself in water
up to his nose. [WSMV-TV (Nashville), 4-9-2012]
* Suspicions Confirmed: In March, WTNH-TV in New Haven,
Conn., obtained an "internal" police memorandum referencing a
challenge from state troopers in one barracks to "outperform"
colleagues in another barracks--in writing traffic tickets. The
memo, from Lt. Anthony Schirillo, refers to the need "to issue at
least 60 infractions/misdemeanors each shift." "One day Troop F
issued 301 tickets. Troop G responded by issuing 345 . . .. We can
do better." "I am asking that everyone, myself included, contribute
to this effort." "Note: If we happen to issue 350 tickets in one day
that would be stellar." (The station spoke to Lt. Paul Vance of the
Connecticut state police, who denied that quotas are given.)
[WTNH-TV, 3-29-2012]
* Crime Does/Doesn't Pay: Convicted embezzler Antoinette
Galluzzo, who admitted stealing more than $50,000 from a city
youth agency in Englewood, N.J., was ordered in April to pay
"restitution," but the amount Judge Eugene Austin settled on was
$10 a month--and only during the period of probation (three years).
On the other hand, in federal court in New York City in April, Kerry
Haggard, 47, was sent to prison for six and a half years on one count
of selling fake movie lobby posters. [Associated Press via NJ.com,
4-12-2012] [Athens (Ga.) Banner-Herald, 4-10-2012]
Least Competent Criminals
* Didn't Think It Through: (1) Eric King, 21, was leaving a store in
Eagan, Minn., in February when a police officer in the parking lot
noticed his pronounced waddle. King was arrested when the officer
found a shoplifted 19-inch television set down his pants. (2) In
March, a 34-year-old Lithuanian-born man led police in Wiltshire,
England, in a nighttime foot chase after he had aroused their
suspicion. Thermal imaging equipment was used, from a
helicopter, to spot the man in the darkness. He was arrested,
"hiding" face-down in a manure pit. (Though he originally fled,
there was little evidence against him, and he was released.) [KSTP-
TV (St. Paul), 2-24-2012] [BBC News, 3-30-2012]
Creme de la Weird
* "Weekend at Bernie's"--and More: Thomas Parkin inherited real
estate from his elderly mother before she died but quickly lost it in a
risky business venture. To get the deed back, according to New
York City prosecutors, he concocted a scheme to pretend that Mom
was still alive (it would actually be Thomas in a dress) and still
owned the land (and thus that the current deedholder was a fraud).
Lawyers arranged a meeting with "Mother" (conducted in a
darkened room because of Mom's "recent cataract surgery"), at
which she mostly remained silent. Parkin improbably stayed in
character, according to a trial dispatch on the Daily Beast, and jurors
apparently kept straight faces as Parkin testified that recent
"communications" between him and his mother were "mostly one-
sided." In May, Parkin was convicted on 11 counts, and at press
time, he was awaiting sentencing. [Daily Beast, 4-29-2012]
Recurring Themes
* In April, just as had happened to several others before her, a
woman in Switzerland identified as "Anna Gut," in her early 50s,
starved to death after trying to prove that she could survive only by
"consuming" sunlight. An earlier practitioner, Australian Ellen
Greve, died in 1999 at age 54 following a short career promoting
"breatharianism," subtitled in her books and public lectures,
"Liberation from the drudgery of food and drink." None of the ones
who have made similar claims and survived have submitted to 24/7
monitoring. [The Local (Stockholm), 4-25-2012]
Thanks This Week to Roy Henock, Susan Quinn, and Sandy
Pearlman and to the News of the Weird Board of Editorial
Advisors.
* * * * *
WeirdNews at earthlink dot net, http://www.NewsoftheWeird.com,
and P.O. Box 18737, Tampa FL 33679.
by Chuck Shepherd
Copyright 2012 by Chuck Shepherd. All rights reserved.
Lead Story
* Dr. Oliver Di Pietro of Bay Harbor Islands, Fla., is a leading
prescriber of the "K-E diet" that offers desperate people a drastic
short-term weight loss by threading a feeding tube through the nose
to the stomach and dripping in a protein-fat solution, as clients' only
"meals," for 10 straight days. "Within a few hours," Dr. Di Pietro
told ABC's "Good Morning America" in April, "your hunger and
appetite go away completely." Fat is burned through "ketosis," he
said, and a loss of 10 to 20 pounds in 10 days is possible. Such
short-term loss might be important, for example, for a woman
prepping for her wedding day. One client said she doesn't have "all
of the time on the planet" just to exercise, "so I came to the doctor."
[Good Morning America via Yahoo News, 4-16-2012]
Government in Action!
* The late Pennsylvania Congressman John Murtha was a Capitol
Hill powerhouse, and among his legacies is the federally-funded
airport in his district that largely served him and the local
companies heading to Washington, D.C., to lobby for government
contracts. (The less-convenient Pittsburgh airport is 55 miles
away.) Murtha died in 2010, but the airport (which cost $150
million in "earmarked" funds to build, upgrade, and maintain) still,
according to an April Yahoo News dispatch, handles only three
flights a day, all from Washington, D.C., and about $100 of every
passenger's ticket is subsidized by the federal government. [Yahoo
News, 4-3-2012]
* Officials in Burnsville, Minn., have brought the full force of the
law to bear upon Mitch Faber (who was arrested, forced to pay a
high bail, and released under electronic monitoring and only on
condition of drug testing), whom they have charged with the crime
of not putting proper siding on his house. According to a March
report on KSTP-TV, Faber said he started re-siding, but when the
economy turned bad in 2008, he stopped, assuming that the worst he
could eventually suffer would be a fine. [KSTP-TV (St. Paul), 3-23-
2012]
Great Architecture!
* There are big plans in the city of Chiang Rai, Thailand, for a
massive Buddhist temple that priests aim to make one of the most
beautiful structures in the world, and have entrusted Chalermchai
Kositpipat to design it, in all-white with glittering glass and
arrangements of "rich symbolism derived from Buddhist and Hindu
traditions." If Kositpipat has his way, according to an April
Huffington Post dispatch, the temple will also have images of
Superman, Batman, and (from the movie "The Matrix") Neo--all of
which, Kositpipat said, further Lord Buddha's "message."
[Huffington Post, 4-26-2012]
* Architect Sou Fujimoto recently unveiled his public restroom (for
women only, though) whose one transparency-enclosed toilet sits in
a 2,160-square-foot private garden of cherry, plum, and peach trees.
The six-foot-high-walled park is located beside a railway station in
Ichihara City, east of Tokyo. Japan is a world leader in fanciful
toilets, and Fujimoto said he thought the scenery would enhance the
user's "feeling of release." [Japan Broadcasting Corporation via
CNET News, 4-14-2012]
The Aristocrat!
* Kelly Ervin, 48, was arrested in Salisbury, Md., in April and
charged with littering contents of "under 100 pounds." According
to police, Ervin routinely goes for a run every morning at 4 o'clock,
and just as routinely, has a bowel movement after about two miles.
Most days, that puts him in a certain neighborhood, whose residents
have been complaining. When questioned, according to a Salisbury
Daily Times reporter, Ervin basically shrugged and said he thought
many distance runners do the same thing. [Salisbury Daily Times,
4-19-2012]
Police Report
* In March, Jose Romero-Valenzuela, 34, in a hurry to get to the
courthouse in Oregon City, Ore., for a hearing on drug charges,
managed to pick up three speeding tickets on Interstate 84, one right
after the other within the space of an hour. A sheriff's deputy and
two different state troopers charged him with speeds in excess of 92
mph. (Another trooper, specifically monitoring Romero-Valenzuela
after the third stop, reported that, finally, he obeyed the speed limit.)
[The Oregonian, 3-8-2012]
* William Todd arrived in Nashville, Tenn., on April 9th via
Greyhound bus and faced a nine-hour layover. According to police,
Todd committed at least 11 felonies during that time, one after
another, with more charges still possible. Among Todd's alleged
diversions: shooting up a restaurant, setting it on fire, robbing four
people at a bar, carjacking, breaking into a law office and defecating
on a desk, trolling hotel rooms seeking theft opportunities, and
stealing a taxicab and robbing the driver. Said a police sergeant,
"I've never seen anything like this before." He was finally captured
at Opryland, where he had hidden by submerging himself in water
up to his nose. [WSMV-TV (Nashville), 4-9-2012]
* Suspicions Confirmed: In March, WTNH-TV in New Haven,
Conn., obtained an "internal" police memorandum referencing a
challenge from state troopers in one barracks to "outperform"
colleagues in another barracks--in writing traffic tickets. The
memo, from Lt. Anthony Schirillo, refers to the need "to issue at
least 60 infractions/misdemeanors each shift." "One day Troop F
issued 301 tickets. Troop G responded by issuing 345 . . .. We can
do better." "I am asking that everyone, myself included, contribute
to this effort." "Note: If we happen to issue 350 tickets in one day
that would be stellar." (The station spoke to Lt. Paul Vance of the
Connecticut state police, who denied that quotas are given.)
[WTNH-TV, 3-29-2012]
* Crime Does/Doesn't Pay: Convicted embezzler Antoinette
Galluzzo, who admitted stealing more than $50,000 from a city
youth agency in Englewood, N.J., was ordered in April to pay
"restitution," but the amount Judge Eugene Austin settled on was
$10 a month--and only during the period of probation (three years).
On the other hand, in federal court in New York City in April, Kerry
Haggard, 47, was sent to prison for six and a half years on one count
of selling fake movie lobby posters. [Associated Press via NJ.com,
4-12-2012] [Athens (Ga.) Banner-Herald, 4-10-2012]
Least Competent Criminals
* Didn't Think It Through: (1) Eric King, 21, was leaving a store in
Eagan, Minn., in February when a police officer in the parking lot
noticed his pronounced waddle. King was arrested when the officer
found a shoplifted 19-inch television set down his pants. (2) In
March, a 34-year-old Lithuanian-born man led police in Wiltshire,
England, in a nighttime foot chase after he had aroused their
suspicion. Thermal imaging equipment was used, from a
helicopter, to spot the man in the darkness. He was arrested,
"hiding" face-down in a manure pit. (Though he originally fled,
there was little evidence against him, and he was released.) [KSTP-
TV (St. Paul), 2-24-2012] [BBC News, 3-30-2012]
Creme de la Weird
* "Weekend at Bernie's"--and More: Thomas Parkin inherited real
estate from his elderly mother before she died but quickly lost it in a
risky business venture. To get the deed back, according to New
York City prosecutors, he concocted a scheme to pretend that Mom
was still alive (it would actually be Thomas in a dress) and still
owned the land (and thus that the current deedholder was a fraud).
Lawyers arranged a meeting with "Mother" (conducted in a
darkened room because of Mom's "recent cataract surgery"), at
which she mostly remained silent. Parkin improbably stayed in
character, according to a trial dispatch on the Daily Beast, and jurors
apparently kept straight faces as Parkin testified that recent
"communications" between him and his mother were "mostly one-
sided." In May, Parkin was convicted on 11 counts, and at press
time, he was awaiting sentencing. [Daily Beast, 4-29-2012]
Recurring Themes
* In April, just as had happened to several others before her, a
woman in Switzerland identified as "Anna Gut," in her early 50s,
starved to death after trying to prove that she could survive only by
"consuming" sunlight. An earlier practitioner, Australian Ellen
Greve, died in 1999 at age 54 following a short career promoting
"breatharianism," subtitled in her books and public lectures,
"Liberation from the drudgery of food and drink." None of the ones
who have made similar claims and survived have submitted to 24/7
monitoring. [The Local (Stockholm), 4-25-2012]
Thanks This Week to Roy Henock, Susan Quinn, and Sandy
Pearlman and to the News of the Weird Board of Editorial
Advisors.
* * * * *
WeirdNews at earthlink dot net, http://www.NewsoftheWeird.com,
and P.O. Box 18737, Tampa FL 33679.
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