Fun_People Archive
19 Oct
WhiteBoardness 10/18/96

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From: Peter Langston <psl>
Date: Sat, 19 Oct 96 10:18:54 -0700
To: Fun_People
Subject: WhiteBoardness 10/18/96

Excerpted-from: WhiteBoard News for Friday, October 18, 1996

Quito, Ecuador:

Ecuador's president, Abdala Bucaram, on Thursday had lunch with Lorena
Bobbit, who cut a quick path to world fame when she slashed off her
husband's penis in 1993.

The Ecuadorean-born Bobbit mutilated her husband John Wayne Bobbit in
revenge for allegedly raping her. John Wayne, a former U.S. marine, had his
penis sewn back on and then starred in a pornographic film autobiography.

A Virginia jury in 1994 found Lorena Bobbit not guilty of assaulting her
husband by reason of insanity.

"I feel flattered by this generous reception. I never imagined myself next
to an important dignitary," she told Bucaram. She praised the president as
a simple, hard-working and generous man.

Presenting Bobbit with a copy of his debut rock-and-roll compact disc, "A
Madman in Love," which was released last week, the president said he was
proud to meet one of the world's most famous Ecuadoreans.

"Meeting you in person is an extremely high honor. You look a lot prettier
than you do on television," he said.

"You are a person who knows how to defend her principles and values. Your
presence in the world has meant a lot for the freedom of women," he said.

Bucaram and Bobbit on the weekend both became godparents of the baby
daughter of an Ecuadorean singer in the port city of Guayaquil.

Before lunching with Bucaram, Bobbit met Congress President Fabian Alarcon
and requested faster treatment of a law to protect womens' rights in the
workplace.  She called for Latin American women to unite to defend their
rights and combat sexual violence.

Bucaram was basking in feminist sentiment just one day after women's groups
reacted with outrage to comments by one of his top ministers that he would
like to live naked and prey on women like a caveman.
==========

Gresham, Oregon:

Firefighters first told callers the kitten that had been stuck 80 feet up
in a tree for four yowling days would find its way down on its own.

Then, they had to go rescue the cat-lover who had tried to rescue the cat.

The kitten was balled up and clinging to a limb after being chased up the
tree by a dog.

Its terrified meowing had kept residents of a mobile home park awake for
four nights.

Big-hearted Tom Traun, 36, the manager of the park, couldn't take it
anymore.

When the firefighters declined to come, he strapped on a lumberjack's gear
and climbed to the rescue.

"His father taught him how to go up with the spurs, but not how to get
down," said Laird Case of the Gresham Fire and Emergency Services
department.

Firefighters used a 75-foot cheery picker to reach both Bob, the cat, and
Traum, his human would-be rescuer.

Traum sheepishly thanked the firefighters.

"I guess I tried to be a hero," he said.  "But the real heroes are those
guys."

© 1996 Peter Langston