Excerpts from News of the Weird



The items below are excerpts from Katie's News of the Weird. See Gleanings from The Odd Spot http://f2.org/~ftwoorg/humour/oddspot.html for similar stuff.

1990 New York Republican gubernatorial candidate Pierre Rinfret had some difficulty establishing voter name recognition. A New York Times informal survey of voters identified Pierre Rinfret as an artist, a perfume, a drug dealer, a movie star, a fashion designer, a chef, the French ambassador to the United States, and a goalie for the New York Rangers.

David Ashley, charged with raising poultry without a permit, appeared in court in Seneca Falls, New York, with a rooster tucked under his arm. When the village justice Gordon Tetor ordered the bird removed, Ashley told the judge that the bird was his attorney, explaining "it was the only counsel I could afford."

A study of ovine sexuality by University of California at Davis graduate student Anne Perkins noted the difficulty of determining if lesbianism exists among sheep "because if you are a female sheep, what you do to solicit sex is stand still. Maybe there is a female sheep out there really wanting another female, but there's just no way for us to know it."

Two inmates at the Logan County, Utah, jail were charged with various crimes in 1990 after having made their third foray of the evening from the jail (this time to set a fire in the sheriff's evidence roon). They first escaped through a crawl hole to get beer from the wife of one of the three, then returned to jail. A few minutes later, they left to steal weapons and get more beer, then returned. After their third adventure, an officer noticed empty beer cans outside the office door.

A bank robber in New Haven, Connecticut, was convicted and sentenced to 80 years in prison. His bank robbery was foiled when his getaway car, left idling outside the bank, was stolen.

Tommy Cribbs, the sheriff of Dyer County, Tennessee, was arrested in Van Buren, Missouri, after police noticed his car in the parking lot of a local motel. A car of that description had been used in the theft of two sheep from a nearby farm. Officers who were questioning people at the motel were led to Cribbs after a sheep was thrown from the window of his room.

A Northwest Airlines flight from Seattle to Detroit made an emergency landing in Salt Lake City after the crew smelled gasoline. Investigators discovered the fumes came from a West German tourist who brought an empty gas can aboard after his car had run out of gas on the way to the Seattle airport.

Ray County, Missouri, conservation agent George Hiser told his wife to take her best shot when a turkey came out of the woods while they were hunting. Marcia Hiser not only dropped the bird at 40 yards, but she also hit a second turkey 15 yards behind it with the same blast. Since Missouri law prohibits killing more than one turkey a week during the spring season, George had no choice but to issue Marcia a ticket.

In Narooma, Australia, 16-year-old Greg Hammond, who was born with only one hand, placed second in a men's 100-meter race. Officials disqualified him, however, after an appeal noted that he failed to touch the end of the pool with both hands as specified by international rules.

Dale Eller, 22, of Columbus, Ohio, walked into police headquarters and re-quested an X-ray in order to locate his brain. He showed the police a hole in his skull through which he had inserted 3" of wire trying to find his brain but had failed. He told them he had made the hole with a power drill. Police took Eller to the hopsital, where doctors removed a coat hanger wire from his head. A hospital official said Eller was in good condition, although doctors said he might have personality changes.