Fun_People Archive
30 May
WhiteBoardness - 5/29/98

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From: Peter Langston <psl>
Date: Sat, 30 May 98 02:02:35 -0700
To: Fun_People
Precedence: bulk
Subject: WhiteBoardness - 5/29/98

X-Lib-of-Cong-ISSN: 1098-7649
Excerpted-from: WhiteBoard News for Friday, May 29, 1998

London, England:

A cookery program that showed the cooking and eating of a human placenta
has been criticised by a government watchdog.

The Broadcasting Standards Commission said Channel 4's TV Dinners had
"breached convention" after an edition of the series in February showed a
mother preparing and eating a placenta pitO to celebrate the birth of her
daughter.

The programme's presenter, Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall, devised the recipe
with the mother, Rosie Clear. Miss Clear said that she wanted to give a
party for her new baby, Indi-Mo Krebbs, but neither she nor her boyfriend
were Christian, so they settled on a party with the placenta instead.

The placenta was fried with shallots and garlic, flambOed, purOed and
finally served to 20 guests on focaccia bread. The father of the child, Lee,
had 17 helpings. Other guests were less enthusiastic.

Nine viewers wrote to the BSC to complain about the programme, broadcast at
8.30pm. They all found it distasteful and some said that the actions shown
had been cannibalistic.

Channel 4 argued that the programme aimed to challenge conventional wisdom
and pointed out that TV Dinners was "not a standard cookery show".
===========

New York, New York:

Viagra cured a 70-year-old construction executive's impotence - too well,
his former companion says in a lawsuit.

Roberta Bernardo, also identified in published reports as Bobbi Burke, is
suing Francis Bernardo for $2 million, claiming the impotence drug led him
to infidelity.

The 61-year-old woman said their 10-year relationship fell apart when
Bernardo left their luxury condominium May 5 with a bottle of Viagra he'd
had for two days.

Her palimony complaint, filed May 15, said he left a note boasting of his
renewed vigor and saying their relationship was over.

"He's rejuvenated and can get back out there," she told the New York Post.
"At 70, I guess he figures he's going to party until he goes."

She said she and Bernardo had sex for the first time in four years with the
help of Viagra, the impotence drug that went on the market last month.

Her attorney, Dominic Barbara, said the couple had been living together for
a decade but never tied the knot.  There is no common-law marriage in New
York state.

Barbara said his client might file a negligence suit against Pfizer, which
makes Viagra.

"The makers of Viagra should be liable for something like this," Barbara
said. "It's like giving a loaded gun to someone who has not been trained to
shoot."

He said the company should warn that the drug could be hazardous to
marriages and offer emotional counseling along with the little blue pills.
============

San Antonio, Texas:

Honest, officer - it's my grandmother.

Michael Anthony Horne insisted the powdery substance police found in a
plastic bag in his pickup was the ashes of his cremated grandmother. But
when police tested the contents, it tested positive for methamphetamine.

Horne was hauled away to jail for a month. Unable to make bail, he lost his
job, his pickup, his apartment and his military reserve status.

Subsequent tests confirmed that the substance was indeed human remains,
something Horne had insisted since his arrest in last July.

"It's in the police report that he told them that," said his attorney, Luis
Vera.

On Thursday, Horne sued the city for unspecified damages.

Unfortunately, repeated testing has destroyed most of the evidence.

"The sad thing is, most of his grandmother's remains are gone now," Vera
said. "He can't get that back."

© 1998 Peter Langston