Fun_People Archive
21 Jun
Weirdness [434] - 31May96

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From: Peter Langston <psl>
Date: Fri, 21 Jun 96 13:19:44 -0700
To: Fun_People
Subject: Weirdness [434] - 31May96

Excerpted-from: WEIRDNUZ.434 (News of the Weird, May 31, 1996)
		by Chuck Shepherd

* The New York Times, in a May story on the commercial usefulness of cow
parts, reported that not only are the gallstones exported (at $600 an ounce
to the Far East, as aphrodisiacs and jewelry), and hearts (27 cents a pound
to Russia, for sausage), but so are cow lips (58 cents a pound to Mexico,
where they are shredded, spiced, and grilled for taco fillings).
[N. Y. Times, 5- 5-96]

* In March, The Sunday Oklahoman profiled Oklahoma City homemaker Mary
Clamser, 44, whose deterioration with multiple sclerosis had been abruptly
halted in 1994 when lightning struck her house while she was grasping metal
objects with each hand and wearing her metal leg brace brought on by the
disease.  Suddenly, she began walking easily, and though doctors told her
the condition was probably only temporary, she still walks easily today.
As if that weren't enough good luck, Clamser, in order to fly to California
for a TV interview in April 1995, was forced to cancel a local appointment
she had made at the Oklahoma City federal building for 9 a.m. on April 19.
[The Sunday Oklahoman, 3-17-96]

* In December, a Wall Street Journal report described the "Polish method"
for destroying the 48,000 tanks (that weigh up to 34 tons each) left in
Eastern Europe that must be turned to scrap under a 1990 treaty.  Since it
is impractical to blow them up or to melt them, Poland manufactures nine-ton
balls, lifts them with hoists containing electromagnets, and drops them onto
the tanks, flattening them.  Said an American diplomat, after the process
was described to him, "Wow, that must be really satisfying."
[Wall Street Journal, 12-26-95]

* In February, three Army recruiters in Leesburg, Fla., were jailed after
they trashed the adjacent Navy recruiting office with a crowbar, injuring
two Marines, because a female potential Army recruit had been given a better
deal by the Navy. [Atlanta Journal-Constitution-AP, 2-23-96]

* In April, the California Senate president revealed that Republican Sen.
Don Rogers, facing bankruptcy four years ago, filed a declaration denying
that he owed the $150,000 in federal taxes that the government claimed.
The reason, he wrote, was that he was not a "citizen" under the 14th
amendment to the U.  S. Constitution because that provision applies only to
former slaves; rather, Rogers said he possessed a "white man's citizenship."
This year, Rogers renounced the declaration, claiming he had received bad
tax advice. [San Jose Mercury News-AP, 4-24-96]

Copyright 1996, Universal Press Syndicate.  All rights reserved.
No commercial use may be made of the material, or of the name
News of the Weird.

© 1996 Peter Langston