Fun_People Archive
19 Jul
Weirdness [438] - 28Jun96

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From: Peter Langston <psl>
Date: Fri, 19 Jul 96 09:46:54 -0700
To: Fun_People
Subject: Weirdness [438] - 28Jun96

Excerpted-from: WEIRDNUZ.438 (News of the Weird, June 28, 1996)
		by Chuck Shepherd

* In May, Quebec legislator Andre Boulerice denounced voter fraud during a
committee meeting, citing one particular example of bogus names registered
to vote in Old Montreal.  "I know there are famous people in my [district],"
said Boulerice,"but I doubt 'Omar Sharif' would be voting [here],"
especially since, according to voter records, he shares an apartment with
"Martina Navratilova."  The next day, as neighbors of the couple reported,
Sharif son of the actor is indeed married to a woman named Martina
Navratilova, who is a stockbroker. [Edmonton Journal, 5-9-96]

* In February, police in Tuscaloosa, Ala., charged Felicia Scott, 29, with
shooting to death her nine-month-pregnant girlfriend Carethia Curry, 17,
then cutting open her belly and stealing her baby because she herself was
unable to get pregnant.  The baby survived. [Edmonton Journal-AP, 3-17-96]

* During December and January, and after four years of preparation,
award-winning, Yale-educated artist Maria Fernanda Cardoso brought her flea
circus to the Exploratorium in San Francisco.  Among the tricks:  fleas
walking tightropes, popping out of cannons, diving into thimbles of water,
dueling with foil swords.  Cardoso bought the fleas in bulk for 10 cents
each and occasionally awarded prizes of blood for tricks well done.  She
admits a flea obsession, in part because they have killed so many humans
(spreading bubonic plague that killed 10 million people at the turn of the
century and another 25 million in the 14th century). [Utne Reader, May-June
1996; San Francisco Chronicle, 10-7-95]

* According to police in St. Louis, Mo., burglary suspects Ronald L. Egan
and Roy G. Mullin III couldn't have been more eager to please when they were
arrested in April.  The first cop on the scene spotted Mullin and asked what
he was doing there; Mullin allegedly replied, "A burglary, I guess."  The
second cop spotted Egan emerging from around back with a vacuum cleaner and
asked him the same question; Egan allegedly replied, "Burglarizing the
place." [St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 4-3-96]

* The Sacramento Bee reported in May that rapists' use of condoms is up
substantially in several cities but that it is not clear whether that is
due primarily to fear of AIDS or fear of leaving valuable DNA evidence on
the victim's body.  Many rapists who use condoms are ignorant of DNA, in
that they will leave the semen-filled condom at the scene, which is like
gift-wrapping the evidence for investigators. [Sacramento Bee, 5-19-96]

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