Originally published 11.05.00 > >News of the Weird(.665) > >LEAD STORIES > >Wealthy retired Italian law professor Giacinto Auriti began in July to >circulate a private currency, called the "simec," among citizens (and about >40 >shopkeepers) in the town of Guardiagrele (about 125 miles from Rome), to >"prove" his longstanding theory that any currency, if put in the hands of >consumers instead of banks, yields more purchasing power. Auriti prints the >simecs, sells them at par with the lira, and then guarantees to merchants >that >he will redeem them at double their value (by paying out from his family >fortune), thereby encouraging merchants to lower their prices. The simec >has >caused an explosion of consumer sales, but the government believes the >whole >idea is ridiculous and will collapse as soon as Auriti stops guaranteeing >simecs' value. > >The World Wrestling Federation (whose savage, tawdry matches, under the >slogan "WWF Attitude!" top cable TV ratings) filed a lawsuit against >William >Morris Agency in October, asking a judge to please rescue it from a 1997 >contract in which it handed over to the agency a piece of every future >dollar >it earns. WWF argues that, unable to protect itself, it was bullied by WMA >into signing an exploitative contract. > >------------------------------------------------------------------------ >Cavalcade of Hypocrisy > >In October, Matthew J. Glavin, president of the conservative legal >foundation >leading the fight to disbar President Clinton for lying about his sexual >affairs, was charged with public indecency, allegedly caught trolling for >anonymous male sex partners in a suburban Atlanta park. And John Paulk, >whose >personal "religion cures homosexuality" experience landed him on the cover >of >Newsweek in 1998, was demoted as an executive with the Christian group >Focus >on the Family after he was caught in October reveling in a Washington, >D.C., >gay bar. And Mike Trout, another Focus on the Family official, resigned in >October after confessing to an extramarital affair. > >------------------------------------------------------------------------ >Police Blotter > >Two Altamonte Springs, Fla., police officers were suspended in August >after a photograph turned up of one officer exposing his genitals during a >music festival. The two officers had been stationed near the stage for >security and were being handed fans' cameras to take close-up photos of the >performers, and somehow, one fan got her camera back with the extra photo. >Initially, the officer who aimed the camera defended his action by >claiming, >inexplicably, that he and his buddy were just fooling around and that he >did >not believe there was film in the camera. > >Jeffrey Bruette and his former roommate filed an $8 million lawsuit >against the Montgomery County (Md.) Police in July, alleging that they were >humiliated when child-pornography charges were filed against them because >of a >videotape they had shot and handed to police. In early 1999, the two men, >concerned that a teen-age neighbor boy was stealing from them, had set up a >surveillance camera, which happened to catch the boy involved in sex with >the >men's dogs. They ultimately handed the tape to police to facilitate the >boy's >getting counseling, but then police arrested them as if the video had been >made for sexual purposes, and the men now sue to clear their reputations. > >------------------------------------------------------------------------ >Ewwwwww! Gross! > >In July, residents of Wertz Avenue in Charleston, W.Va., were just about >at the breaking point because of chronic blocked-sewer problems. Not only >do >the city's storm drains regularly get clogged, sending raw sewage into the >street, but recent sewer line backups have spilled waste from Gunnoe's >Whole >Hog Sausage slaughtering and processing plant, in the form of waves of >blood >and meat chunks oozing down the street. > >Chippewa Falls (Wis.) High School senior John E. Smith Jr. was suspended >in September for a revenge-based prank in which he brought a cake to school >and announced that it was his birthday and that he wanted to share it with >administrators. As the six staff members who accepted his generosity found >out >with their first bites, the secret ingredient in the cake was clumps of >hair >from different areas of Smith's body. > >------------------------------------------------------------------------ >Latest Religious Messages > >Darryl Bruce McDowell, 34, was arrested near Cranbrook, British Columbia, >in July and charged with assault and seven other counts related to roughing >up >his common-law wife, against whom he was allegedly retaliating for her >having >tried to leave him. According to his own testimony at a bail hearing, >McDowell >uses a wooden rod from time to time to discipline the wife and her children >as >the Book of Proverbs "command(s)" him to do. Said McDowell, "There is no >enjoyment about rodding. It's a biblical imperative." > >Among the issues roiling the Roman Catholics' Italian Bishops Conference >in Turin in September was the pending recommendation that all exorcisms be >conducted in Latin rather than in local languages, and an important >subissue, >according to a report from The Independent (London), was how Satan ought >therefore to be addressed: by the formal version of the Latin pronoun "you" >("lei") or the more intimate version ("tu"). > >------------------------------------------------------------------------ >Those Sensitive Fetuses > >Sylvia Louise Gillard O'Brien filed a lawsuit in Halifax, Nova Scotia, in >August, asking about $7 million from Coca-Cola because, while she was >pregnant >in 1997, a Fruitopia bottle broke while she was drinking from it, cutting >her >lip and causing her to bite on shards; she claims that her resulting fear >of >miscarriage caused the fetus, now a child of 3, to fail to trust and like >her >sufficiently. And Jeffrey and Julie Marie Leinweber filed a lawsuit in >Medina, >Ohio, in July for $50,000, claiming that Mrs. Leinweber's third-trimester >fetus was so stressed by an auto accident (even though the child, now 3, >shows >no apparent effects) that the "special bond between mother and child" was >"taken away" by the collision. > >------------------------------------------------------------------------ >Recurring Themes > >In 1999, News of the Weird reported on two South Koreans who ran insurance >scams by chopping off their own feet and finger for payoffs of $40,000 and >$7,500, respectively. During a two-week period in August 2000, three more >scams were reported: Huang Chun-ming, 35, hacked off his wrist after >purchasing additional insurance (Taichung, Taiwan); Chen Shih-hung, 37, >chopped off his finger to make his claim (Chiching, Taiwan); and a >28-year-old >man was charged with collecting $15,000 in an insurance payout in >Dusseldorf, >Germany, after he castrated himself and blamed it on a gang's attack. > >------------------------------------------------------------------------ >Undignified Deaths > >A 16-year-old boy riding in a car near Gaston, Ore., in August was killed >by >an airborne, 1,500-pound elk that had just been hit by a truck. In April, >another 16-year-old boy, on his bicycle, was killed by an airborne deer >that >had just been hit by a car in North Canton, Ga. (And in August, Hida >Yochikata, 37, survived, but with major back injuries, after being hit by >an >airborne dog that had fallen from a ninth-floor window in a Paris suburb.) > >------------------------------------------------------------------------ >Also, in the Last Month ... > >Murder defendant Gregory D. Murphy, strolling out of his uneventful >pre-trial >hearing, suddenly turned and coldcocked his lawyer with a left to the face >(Alexandria, Va.). A woman filed a lawsuit against the American Red Cross, >claiming that she contracted oral herpes from her CPR class's unsanitized >dummy (Hammond, Ind.). In a settlement of fraud charges with the Florida >attorney general, a psychic hotline agreed to hire only people who swore in >writing that they had psychic powers. An off-duty police officer, out on >bond >after his arrest on suspicion of DUI in the deaths of two motorists, was >himself hit by a drunk driver a week later while out bicycling (Kailua, >Hawaii). > _____________________________________________________________________________________ Get more from the Web. FREE MSN Explorer download : http://explorer.msn.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html You may also send subscription requests to [log in to unmask] if you have problems accessing the web interface and remember to write your full name and e-mail address. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------