Fun_People Archive
31 Mar
Weirdness [422] - 8Mar96

Date: Sun, 31 Mar 96 14:29:29 -0800
From: Peter Langston <psl>
To: Fun_People
Subject: Weirdness [422] - 8Mar96

Excerpted-from: WEIRDNUZ.422 (News of the Weird, March 8, 1996)
by Chuck Shepherd

* Among recent passings of note:  In January, in Columbus, Ohio, Mr. M. S.
Tooill; and in Arlington, Va., Mr. W. M.  Croker; and in December in
Oklahoma City, Mr. William Death.  In February, a 44-year-old man was killed
on the shoulder of I-95 in Rhode Island, after being hit by a truck while
standing between two other trucks--one hauling granite slabs for tombstones
and the other belonging to the Yates Casket Company.  And three weeks
earlier, a 23-year-old man was killed in Fallston, Md., when his car smashed
into a truck carrying burial vaults. [Columbus Dispatch, 1-14-96; Washington
Post, 1-28-95; Daily Oklahoman, Dec95] [Gannett Suburban Newspapers (White
Plains, N. Y.), 2-2-96] [Baltimore Sun, 1-5-96]

WEIRD SCIENCE

* Two Danish scientists, writing in the journal Nature in December, reported
finding a previously unknown, 0.01-inch-long organism whose habitat is the
lips of Norwegian lobsters.  Among the characteristics of the Symbion
pandora:  It can reproduce either sexually or asexually, and though it is
born with a brain, the brain completely disappears during adolescence and
reappears at the onset of adulthood. [Chicago Tribune-Reuters, 12-14-95]
[And to think of the troubles we go through to simulate that... or is it the  
exact opposite?  -psl]

* In November, Knight-Ridder News Service reported that the government in
Nanning, China, was levying fines of about $1.50 for anyone who orders more
food in restaurants than he can eat.  [Rock Island Argus-Knight-Ridder,
11-10-95]

* In December, the Arizona Republic profiled animal psychologist Krista
Cantrell, who says her success is because she can communicate telepathically
with dogs and therefore get to the bottom of most master-dog relationship
problems.  Several satisfied clients sang praises for Cantrell's work,
including even the owner of a horse that was on the verge of being put to
sleep but was able to tell Cantrell that he was simply overmedicated.  (Five
weeks later, the horse won a race.) [Washington Times- Arizona Republic,
12-12-95]

* In December, United Nations health organizations announced stepped-up
campaigns against several African maladies, including Guinea worm disease.
The disease manifests itself within a year of a person's ingesting water
fleas infected with the larvae, at which point string-like worms up to three
feet long emerge from painful blisters. [New York Times, 12-6-95]
[YOW!  I just hate when that happens!  -psl]

Copyright 1996, Universal Press Syndicate.  All rights reserved. 

Released for the entertainment of readers.  No commercial use
may be made of the material or of the name News of the Weird.

© 1996 Peter Langston