News of the Weird, November 22, 2009
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Chuck Shepherd
Nov 23, 2009, 4:25:20 PM11/23/09
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WEIRDNUZ.M137 (News of the Weird, November 22, 2009)
by Chuck Shepherd
Copyright 2009 by Chuck Shepherd. All rights reserved.
Lead Story
* The first line of "defense" at the 400 Iraqi police checkpoints in
Baghdad are small wands with antennas that supposedly detect
explosives but which U.S. officials say are about as useful as Ouija
boards. The Iraqi official in charge, Maj. Gen. Jehad al-Jabiri, is
so enamored of the devices, according to a November New York
Times dispatch, that when American experts repeatedly showed the
rods' failures in test after test, he blamed the results on testers' lack
of "training." The Iraqi government has purchased 1,500 of the
"ADE 651" from its manufacturer, ATSC Ltd of the UK, at prices
ranging from $16,000 to $60,000 each. The suicide bombers who
killed 155 in downtown Baghdad on October 25th passed two tons
of explosives through at least one ADE-651-equipped checkpoint.
[New York Times, 11-4-09]
Cultural Diversity
* Many mixed-race ("coloured") teenage boys in Cape Town,
South Africa, secure their ethnic identity by having several upper
front teeth removed, according to an October dispatch in London's
Daily Telegraph. A University of Cape Town professor said
fashion and peer pressure were primary motives for creating the
tooth-gap, and not the popular myth among outsiders that
coloureds do it to facilitate oral sex. (The ritual includes fitting
dentures for the gap just in case, to give the boys flexibility.)
[Daily Telegraph, 10-7-09]
* What a Difference a Day Makes: (1) Charles Wesley Mumbere,
59, was a longtime nurse's aide at a nursing home in Harrisburg,
Pa., until July, when the Ugandan government recognized the
separatist Rwenzururu territory founded in 1962 by Mumbere's late
father. In October, Mumbere returned to his native country as
king of the region's 300,000 subjects. (2) Jigme Wangchuk, 11,
was a student at St. Peter's School in Boston when he was
enthroned in November by a Buddhist sect in India's Darjeeling
district as its high priest, covering territory extending to
neighboring Nepal and Bhutan. He will live in seclusion in his
monastery, except for contact with Facebook friends he made
while in Boston. [The Guardian (London), 10-20-09] [Daily
Telegraph (London), 11-4-09]
* An unprecedented toilet-building spree has taken hold in India
over the last two years, spurred by a government campaign
embraced by young women: "No Toilet, No Bride" (i.e., no
marriage unless the male's dowry includes indoor plumbing).
About 665 million people in India lack access to toilets, according
to an October Washington Post dispatch. [Washington Post, 10-12-
09]
* Tradition: (1) The town of Waiau, New Zealand, had once again
planned an annual rabbit-carcass-tossing contest, to a chorus of
complaints from animal rights activists concerned that children not
associate dead animals with fun. (In New Zealand, rabbits are
crop-destroying pests, doing an estimated NZ$22 million (US$16
million) damage annually, but nonetheless, the town canceled the
contest.) (2) As the Irish Parliament debated whether to lower the
blood-alcohol reading that would earn drivers a DUI charge,
legislator Mattie McGrath begged colleagues to keep the current,
more generous standards: "[Modest drinking] can make people
who are jumpy on the road, or nervous, be more relaxed." [Daily
Telegraph (London), 10-22-09] [The Guardian (London), 10-27-
09]
Latest Religious Messages
* "Bonnet books" are a "booming new subcategory of the romance
genre," reported the Wall Street Journal in September, describing
"G-rated" Amish love stories that sell well among outside readers
but have found an even more avid audience among Amish women
themselves. The typical best-seller is by a non-Amish writer,
perhaps involving a woman inside the community who falls in love
with an outsider. In one book described by the Journal, the lovers
"actually kiss a couple of times in 326 pages." [Wall Street
Journal, 9-9-09]
* More Sharia Weirdness: (1) The radical Islamist group Al
Shabaab in Somalia recently began accosting and beating robed
women whose bras made their breasts (even though covered) look
too provocative. One mother told Reuters in October that police
told her that any "firm[ness]" must be natural and not bra-
enhanced. (2) In September, prominent Egyptian scholar Abdul
Mouti Bayoumi of al-Azhar University urged the death penalty for
people selling virginity-faking devices that make women appear to
bleed on their wedding nights. One such gadget, made in China,
was openly for sale in Syria for the equivalent of about $15,
according to a September BBC News report. [Daily Mail (London),
10-16-09] [BBC News, 9-28-09]
Questionable Judgments
* "Ultrarunning" (whose signature event is the 100-mile marathon)
takes such a degree of commitment that five to ten percent are said
even to have permanently removed their toenails in order to
eliminate one of the potential sources of runners' discomfort. A
sports podiatrist told the New York Times in October that many
"ultras" consider their toenails "useless appendages, remnants of
claws from evolutionary times," but on the other hand, said one
ultrarunner, "You know any sport has gone off the rails when you
have to remove body parts to do it." [New York Times, 10-22-09]
* After her two kids, ages 5 and 3, died in a house fire in Rialto,
Calif., in May, Viviana Delgado, 27, worked her way through the
stages of grief until deciding in October on one final tribute. She
turned the vacant, charred dwelling into a showcase haunted house
for Halloween. To the average visitor, it's just a spookily-
decorated house, but neighbors know that kids died inside, and
they know what the two tombstones in the front yard represent.
[San Bernardino Sun, 10-23-09]
Least Competent People
* (1) Walking: Daredevil Scottish stunt bicyclist Danny
MacAskill, whose electrifying feats are featured on popular
YouTube videos, suffered a broken collarbone in October when he
tripped on a curb while out for a walk in downtown Edinburgh. (2)
Truck-Driving: Phillip Mathews, 73, whose logging truck is
equipped with a tall boom arm to facilitate loading, forgot to lower
the arm after finishing a job in Bellevue, Iowa, in October, and
when he returned to the highway, the boom proceeded to snap lines
on utility poles he passed for the next 12 miles until motorists
finally got his attention. [BBC News, 10-29-09] [Des Moines
Register-AP, 10-21-09]
Recurring Themes
The British Health Care Bureaucracy: (1) When social workers
praised the progress 10-year-old Devon Taverner was making with
her prosthetic leg (necessary because of a birth defect), bureaucrats
thus terminated her disability payments, which instantly made her
life harder. For example, the lack of a car allowance means she
cannot travel without, each trip, removing and re-attaching the
prosthesis. (2) On the other hand, Britain's High Court ruled in
September that inmate Denis Roberts, 59, a murderer, was entitled
to free surgery to remove a birthmark, and the National Health
Service in August granted a free prescription for Viagra to
recidivist sex offender Roger Martin, 71, whose latest conviction,
last year, involved an 11-year-old boy. [Daily Mail, 10-11-09]
[BBC News, 9-2-09] [Daily Mail, 8-20-09]
Good News!
* (1) The epic drought that hit central Texas this year, causing a
30-foot drop in the water level of Lake Travis near Austin, also
helped police solve three stolen-vehicle cases. Of the three
exposed at the bottom of the lake in July was one, with key still in
the ignition, missing since 1988. (2) Emergency-room doctors
writing in the Archives of Surgery in September reported that light
alcohol-drinkers survived brain injuries better than either non-
drinkers or heavy drinkers. [Austin American-Statesman, 7-24-09]
[CTV News (Toronto), 9-22-09]
A News of the Weird Classic (March 2001)
* "The final taboo" and "a second coming out" are what John
Outcalt, a 42-year-old New York City filmmaker, calls the Gainers
and Encouragers gay subculture of men who (the gainers) try to
transform their bodies by eating all the food they can or who (the
encouragers) get a sexual thrill out of enabling the gainers. The of-
average-weight Outcalt said (in a December 2000 issue of the
weekly Time Out New York) he's a "chub chaser" who helps
organize conventions (Encouragecons) and likes watching bodies
"going from point A to point B, and whether it's gaining hair,
getting larger, or getting fat, I find it sexy and exciting." [Time Out
New York, 12-14-00]
Thanks This Week to Ron Crumpton, Paul Pruitt, Mike
Mendenhall, Cindy Hildebrand, and Kathryn Wood, and to the
News of the Weird Board of Editorial Advisors.
* * * * *
Are you ready for News of the Weird / Pro Edition? Every
Monday at http://NewsoftheWeird.blogspot.com and
http://www.WeirdUniverse.net. Other handy addresses:
WeirdNews at earthlink dot net, http://www.NewsoftheWeird.com,
and P.O. Box 18737, Tampa FL 33679.
by Chuck Shepherd
Copyright 2009 by Chuck Shepherd. All rights reserved.
Lead Story
* The first line of "defense" at the 400 Iraqi police checkpoints in
Baghdad are small wands with antennas that supposedly detect
explosives but which U.S. officials say are about as useful as Ouija
boards. The Iraqi official in charge, Maj. Gen. Jehad al-Jabiri, is
so enamored of the devices, according to a November New York
Times dispatch, that when American experts repeatedly showed the
rods' failures in test after test, he blamed the results on testers' lack
of "training." The Iraqi government has purchased 1,500 of the
"ADE 651" from its manufacturer, ATSC Ltd of the UK, at prices
ranging from $16,000 to $60,000 each. The suicide bombers who
killed 155 in downtown Baghdad on October 25th passed two tons
of explosives through at least one ADE-651-equipped checkpoint.
[New York Times, 11-4-09]
Cultural Diversity
* Many mixed-race ("coloured") teenage boys in Cape Town,
South Africa, secure their ethnic identity by having several upper
front teeth removed, according to an October dispatch in London's
Daily Telegraph. A University of Cape Town professor said
fashion and peer pressure were primary motives for creating the
tooth-gap, and not the popular myth among outsiders that
coloureds do it to facilitate oral sex. (The ritual includes fitting
dentures for the gap just in case, to give the boys flexibility.)
[Daily Telegraph, 10-7-09]
* What a Difference a Day Makes: (1) Charles Wesley Mumbere,
59, was a longtime nurse's aide at a nursing home in Harrisburg,
Pa., until July, when the Ugandan government recognized the
separatist Rwenzururu territory founded in 1962 by Mumbere's late
father. In October, Mumbere returned to his native country as
king of the region's 300,000 subjects. (2) Jigme Wangchuk, 11,
was a student at St. Peter's School in Boston when he was
enthroned in November by a Buddhist sect in India's Darjeeling
district as its high priest, covering territory extending to
neighboring Nepal and Bhutan. He will live in seclusion in his
monastery, except for contact with Facebook friends he made
while in Boston. [The Guardian (London), 10-20-09] [Daily
Telegraph (London), 11-4-09]
* An unprecedented toilet-building spree has taken hold in India
over the last two years, spurred by a government campaign
embraced by young women: "No Toilet, No Bride" (i.e., no
marriage unless the male's dowry includes indoor plumbing).
About 665 million people in India lack access to toilets, according
to an October Washington Post dispatch. [Washington Post, 10-12-
09]
* Tradition: (1) The town of Waiau, New Zealand, had once again
planned an annual rabbit-carcass-tossing contest, to a chorus of
complaints from animal rights activists concerned that children not
associate dead animals with fun. (In New Zealand, rabbits are
crop-destroying pests, doing an estimated NZ$22 million (US$16
million) damage annually, but nonetheless, the town canceled the
contest.) (2) As the Irish Parliament debated whether to lower the
blood-alcohol reading that would earn drivers a DUI charge,
legislator Mattie McGrath begged colleagues to keep the current,
more generous standards: "[Modest drinking] can make people
who are jumpy on the road, or nervous, be more relaxed." [Daily
Telegraph (London), 10-22-09] [The Guardian (London), 10-27-
09]
Latest Religious Messages
* "Bonnet books" are a "booming new subcategory of the romance
genre," reported the Wall Street Journal in September, describing
"G-rated" Amish love stories that sell well among outside readers
but have found an even more avid audience among Amish women
themselves. The typical best-seller is by a non-Amish writer,
perhaps involving a woman inside the community who falls in love
with an outsider. In one book described by the Journal, the lovers
"actually kiss a couple of times in 326 pages." [Wall Street
Journal, 9-9-09]
* More Sharia Weirdness: (1) The radical Islamist group Al
Shabaab in Somalia recently began accosting and beating robed
women whose bras made their breasts (even though covered) look
too provocative. One mother told Reuters in October that police
told her that any "firm[ness]" must be natural and not bra-
enhanced. (2) In September, prominent Egyptian scholar Abdul
Mouti Bayoumi of al-Azhar University urged the death penalty for
people selling virginity-faking devices that make women appear to
bleed on their wedding nights. One such gadget, made in China,
was openly for sale in Syria for the equivalent of about $15,
according to a September BBC News report. [Daily Mail (London),
10-16-09] [BBC News, 9-28-09]
Questionable Judgments
* "Ultrarunning" (whose signature event is the 100-mile marathon)
takes such a degree of commitment that five to ten percent are said
even to have permanently removed their toenails in order to
eliminate one of the potential sources of runners' discomfort. A
sports podiatrist told the New York Times in October that many
"ultras" consider their toenails "useless appendages, remnants of
claws from evolutionary times," but on the other hand, said one
ultrarunner, "You know any sport has gone off the rails when you
have to remove body parts to do it." [New York Times, 10-22-09]
* After her two kids, ages 5 and 3, died in a house fire in Rialto,
Calif., in May, Viviana Delgado, 27, worked her way through the
stages of grief until deciding in October on one final tribute. She
turned the vacant, charred dwelling into a showcase haunted house
for Halloween. To the average visitor, it's just a spookily-
decorated house, but neighbors know that kids died inside, and
they know what the two tombstones in the front yard represent.
[San Bernardino Sun, 10-23-09]
Least Competent People
* (1) Walking: Daredevil Scottish stunt bicyclist Danny
MacAskill, whose electrifying feats are featured on popular
YouTube videos, suffered a broken collarbone in October when he
tripped on a curb while out for a walk in downtown Edinburgh. (2)
Truck-Driving: Phillip Mathews, 73, whose logging truck is
equipped with a tall boom arm to facilitate loading, forgot to lower
the arm after finishing a job in Bellevue, Iowa, in October, and
when he returned to the highway, the boom proceeded to snap lines
on utility poles he passed for the next 12 miles until motorists
finally got his attention. [BBC News, 10-29-09] [Des Moines
Register-AP, 10-21-09]
Recurring Themes
The British Health Care Bureaucracy: (1) When social workers
praised the progress 10-year-old Devon Taverner was making with
her prosthetic leg (necessary because of a birth defect), bureaucrats
thus terminated her disability payments, which instantly made her
life harder. For example, the lack of a car allowance means she
cannot travel without, each trip, removing and re-attaching the
prosthesis. (2) On the other hand, Britain's High Court ruled in
September that inmate Denis Roberts, 59, a murderer, was entitled
to free surgery to remove a birthmark, and the National Health
Service in August granted a free prescription for Viagra to
recidivist sex offender Roger Martin, 71, whose latest conviction,
last year, involved an 11-year-old boy. [Daily Mail, 10-11-09]
[BBC News, 9-2-09] [Daily Mail, 8-20-09]
Good News!
* (1) The epic drought that hit central Texas this year, causing a
30-foot drop in the water level of Lake Travis near Austin, also
helped police solve three stolen-vehicle cases. Of the three
exposed at the bottom of the lake in July was one, with key still in
the ignition, missing since 1988. (2) Emergency-room doctors
writing in the Archives of Surgery in September reported that light
alcohol-drinkers survived brain injuries better than either non-
drinkers or heavy drinkers. [Austin American-Statesman, 7-24-09]
[CTV News (Toronto), 9-22-09]
A News of the Weird Classic (March 2001)
* "The final taboo" and "a second coming out" are what John
Outcalt, a 42-year-old New York City filmmaker, calls the Gainers
and Encouragers gay subculture of men who (the gainers) try to
transform their bodies by eating all the food they can or who (the
encouragers) get a sexual thrill out of enabling the gainers. The of-
average-weight Outcalt said (in a December 2000 issue of the
weekly Time Out New York) he's a "chub chaser" who helps
organize conventions (Encouragecons) and likes watching bodies
"going from point A to point B, and whether it's gaining hair,
getting larger, or getting fat, I find it sexy and exciting." [Time Out
New York, 12-14-00]
Thanks This Week to Ron Crumpton, Paul Pruitt, Mike
Mendenhall, Cindy Hildebrand, and Kathryn Wood, and to the
News of the Weird Board of Editorial Advisors.
* * * * *
Are you ready for News of the Weird / Pro Edition? Every
Monday at http://NewsoftheWeird.blogspot.com and
http://www.WeirdUniverse.net. Other handy addresses:
WeirdNews at earthlink dot net, http://www.NewsoftheWeird.com,
and P.O. Box 18737, Tampa FL 33679.
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