Can’t Possibly Be True
An Indonesian fisherman, Dede, age 35, is in reasonably good health except that his hands and feet resemble something out of the “Alien” movie series, with huge root-like growths that render his arms and legs useless, according to a November Discovery Channel TV program, “Half Man, Half Tree,” reported on by London’s Daily Telegraph. Dermatologist Anthony Gaspari of the University of Maryland flew to Indonesia and determined that Dede’s condition was caused by a genetic inability to restrain the growth of warts (“cutaneous horns”) produced by the human papillomavirus. Gaspari prescribed a regimen of vitamin A, which he said should reduce the size of the warts enough so that, with surgery, Dede could use his hands again.
Twin sisters Doris McAusland and Dora Bennett are 80 years old, live in Madison, Wis., apparently like and dislike the same foods, met their husbands on the same day, from the same church group, had hysterectomies at the same time, always get their hair done together, and, ever since they were toddlers, have worn identical outfits every day (except for one time that they had different shoes), according to a November CBS News report.
In October, Taiwan’s minister of national defense, Lee Tien-yu, instituted a policy of requiring recruits and their squad leaders to hug each other, which he thought would build mutual respect. According to the ritual, each would place his right hand on the other’s back and left hand on the other’s waist, with the leader saying, “Brother, I will take care of you,” and the recruit replying, “Squad leader, I respect you.” Not surprisingly, Lee was forced to abandon the policy three weeks later, especially after critical officials kept challenging Lee to hug some of his military officers in the same way (which he declined to do).
In October a police officer in Scranton, Pa., charged Dawn Herb with disorderly conduct after he passed her home and heard her, through an open window, cussing her toilet, which at the time was overflowing and leaking into the kitchen. Herb, and the American Civil Liberties Union, were incredulous.
Inexplicable
In October, Beckley, W.Va., police detained a 61-year-old man whom they found at the King Tut Drive-In on a Saturday afternoon, apparently sober, after he had “driven” his four grandchildren, all around age 4, “on a busy street in a 15-foot motorboat pulled by a lawnmower,” according to an Associated Press report. The vehicle was of course unregistered and uninspected, and the children not properly seat-restrained, but the man seemed unaware that he had placed the kids in danger.
Unclear on the Concept
British Airways, via a high-profile advertising campaign, has bragged about its environmental awareness, but London’s Daily Mail revealed in November that the company had recently flown “dozens” of planes across the Atlantic Ocean empty, spewing thousands of tons of carbon dioxide, allegedly because it could not find enough crew members for the flights. Critics said the airline merely wanted to preserve its valuable use-them-or-lose-them landing spaces at England’s Heathrow and Gatwick airports, but the company denied that.
News That Sounds Like a Joke
(1) The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency made a special announcement in October that it is once again safe to eat squirrels in New Jersey. (In January, EPA had discovered lead in tissue samples from local squirrels, but later said the lead might have come from defects in the sampling machine.) (2) Karl Marx’s writings glorifying communism (though Western capitalists regard it as grim and joyless) may well have reflected his alienation from society due to a lifelong series of excruciatingly painful boils, according to a recent British Journal of Dermatology article. In an 1867 letter, Marx wrote, “The bourgeoisie will remember my carbuncles until their dying day.”
As protesters gathered at colleges around the country to criticize federal budget cutbacks that would raise the price of subsidized birth control at student health services, one University of New Mexico student described the imminent horror to Albuquerque’s KFRQ-TV: “(Students shouldn’t) have to make a choice between their birth control and their cell phone bill or their birth control and their gym membership ...”
Least Competent Criminals
Paul Keith, 75, was arrested in Framingham, Mass., in November after he had allegedly driven aggressively into the car stopped in front of him waiting for a traffic light to change. Keith earnestly explained to police that the other driver had failed to move once the light turned green. “(S)o I drove into the back of him. When the light turns green, you’re supposed to go.” (Keith demolished the front end of his car.)
District of Calamity (Cont’d)
(1) In November, two mid-level bureaucrats in the District of Columbia tax office were charged with stealing $16 million over three years (since raised by investigators to more than $20 million) by granting tax “refunds” to phony companies run by their friends and relatives. Authorities said six-figure refund checks were routinely issued to companies no one had ever heard of, yet the scam was not discovered by supervisors or auditors until an employee of a bank branch located in a grocery store got suspicious. (2) A November Washington Post investigation found an almost complete lack of oversight of the often-bountiful “activities funds” of D.C. public schools, which were looted by some administrators and teachers for travel, meals and strip-club tabs.
Update
Armin Meiwes, the German gourmet-cannibal who was convicted in 2004 of killing, filleting and eating an apparently willing victim whom he had met via the Internet, gave his first extensive interview from prison in October to German TV and mentioned in passing that his sauteed morsels “tasted like pork, a little ... bitter, stronger.” And in November, a Green Party activist who visits Meiwes’ prison told a reporter that Meiwes had been elected by fellow inmates as a discussion leader on environmental, tax and legal issues and was demonstrating his commitment to Green Party principles by eating mostly vegetarian meals.
Readers’ Choice
(1) In October, Shannon Whisnant innocently bought a meat smoker at auction when owner John Wood of Maiden, N.C., fell behind in storage payments, but then Whisnant discovered Wood’s amputated leg inside (where Wood had been keeping it for posterity). Whisnant claimed ownership and then suggested a joint money-making project with Wood after the story made worldwide news, but Wood insisted on getting his leg back, and in November, a judge ruled in his favor. (2) A 66-year-old man was hospitalized in South Kitsap, Wash., in November after accidentally shooting himself in both legs. Police said he had become frustrated with a stuck lug nut on his Lincoln Continental’s wheel and fired his 12-gauge shotgun at it, resulting in buckshot wounds from his feet to mid-abdomen. 
