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Strange But True

Strange But True Category

Weird, offbeat and bizarre news from around the world. Funny, strange & odd news stories that make you wince, laugh and fear for humanity.

Groom Discovers He Is Already Married

THE accidental bigamist:

An “old-fashioned” man living in Australia has discovered after his wedding day that he had already been married for 30 years — to someone else.

The 67-year-old learned the news from US immigration authorities when he applied to live in Hawaii with his new — but invalid — wife, the Daily Telegraph reports.

He claimed he had no memory of walking down the aisle with the blonde American he had had a drunken fling with in 1978, despite the signed official Arizona document.

“I looked at the signature and thought it could have been mine or it could not have been,” he said.

After trying to track her down, the accidental bigamist could only find out that she had also wedded again in 1993 — which also would have been bigamous.

“Other than that, no one knows where she is,” he said.

But he succeeded in legally annulling the marriage last month.

“He has no recollection of going through any form of ceremony of marriage with her, or of discussing marriage, or of anything referable to marriage,” Justice Sally Brown said.

Further complicating matters, the man was already had a first wife at the time of his drunken wedding but they have since divorced.

Luckily for the man, his “terrific” Hawaiian partner has stuck by him and they plan to make their union official.

“She looks after me and I take care of her,” he said.

“I’m an old-fashioned guy… I believe that for a marriage to work, it has to be a two-way street.”

Source 

Posted: 26th, June 2008 | In: Strange But True | Comments (2)


Bald Men Banned From Holding Passports

passport.jpgIAN Down has had his passport rejected because his head is too shiny.

The Mirror says the 42-year-old had his passports pictures taken in a booth and was shocked when they were rejected by the passport office.

“I am shocked. I told them what it was but they said some countries might not let me in if they saw it.”

Has it come to this that bald persons are personas non grata in some countries, such as Finland where fat bald men can be mistaken for Don DeLuise and rushed by fans?

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Posted: 26th, June 2008 | In: Strange But True, Tabloids | Comment (1)


The Junk Food King Cull: Hardees RIP

murder-burger.jpgAMERICA’S fast-food founders are dropping like flies in an French abattoir.

Now Wilbur Hardee, founder of the Hardees’s chain, is the eighth king of processed foodstuffs to go to go this year.

The list of the dead:

Carl Carcher
founder of Carl’s Jr. (January 11);
Lovie Yancie
founder of Fatburger (January 23);
Al Copeland
founder of Popeye’s Famous Fried Chicken (March 23);
Herb Peterson
inventor of the Egg McMuffin (March 25);
Irvine “Irv” Robbins
co-founder of Baskin-Robbins (May 5);
J.R. Simplot
king of the frozen french fries (May 25);
Neil Baker
Baker’s Drive-Thru and Taco Bell (May 31)
Wilbur Hardee
founder of Hardee’s (June 20)
???? ?????

???? (???? ??)

Who’s next?

Via Tabloid Baby, who tells us that “Hardee’s Monster Thickburger contains 1,420 calories and 107 grams of fat”…

Posted: 25th, June 2008 | In: Strange But True | Comments (2)


DAvid Fisher’s Jenga Towers

jenga.jpgDAVID Fisher, who has never before designed a skyscraper, has created the world’s first rotating towers.

Each floor at his towers to be built in Dubai and Moscow can move. Says he in the Times: “My buildings are unique because they are the first ones to rotate – to be dynamic – every second.”

The Anorak can think of few things less appealing than being sat in an hermitically sealed office block as it revolves high above the desert or through the visible Russian air.

The Times illustrates the unpleasantness with five images of the moving towers, which dissolve like a slinky falling down the stairs from solid structure to the latter moments of a game of Jenga…

Posted: 25th, June 2008 | In: Broadsheets, Strange But True | Comment (1)


Paul Barman’s Rzaview Hip-Hop Interview

MOVE over Paxman:

Wired magazine contributor Paul Barman interviewed visionary hip hop impresario and soundtrack artist the RZA, then turned the transcript into a rhyme.

RZAVIEW by MC Paul Barman:

As prepared for delivery, WFMU, Thursday June 19, 2008.

Rza, pronounced riz’-uh, is a composer for film and TV.
He began as a rapper. His career had a growth spurt.
From flowed words to producer, Wu-Tang Clan founder and father, Rza is also an actor and author.

We met in New York after he drove his kids to the airport.
He held court in his hotel room, exhausted, a good sport.

“I’m a composer,” Rza rose his voice. Knows the choice.
Stay in hip-hop ghetto or let go of noise.
“Stand still and stagnate in a bad state.”
Weakness is revealed by brags, hate.

Rza’s first soundtrack was for Jarmusch’s Ghost Dog.
Perhaps Rza at his most prog. Created a sound.
Elated, he’d found Peter and the Wolf by Sergei Prokofiev.
Assign instrument to each character–borrowed the concept.
As long as you move, you can’t make a wrong step.

Needle-dropped Kill Bill, stood behind cameraguy.
Scored whole range, Soul Plane, Unleashed, Afro Samurai.
Working off animatics was a challenge for Abbot.
Music has movement while drawings are static.

“Fifty piece orchestra can be $250 G’s a week.”
That’s more than treats from Miss Freek-a-leek.
“So I got my digital orchestra.
Over forty keyboards recording free chords.
Sessioners’ pay may not be restored.
”

Rza is talkative. Keyboard reps all octaves.
Mancini’s sample scores have a lot to give.

Early eighties — flashback to Times Square.
He and Ol Dirty Bastard stood in line there
to see triple-bill Chinese crime fare.
Blown away by discipline and ferocity.
Walked away with new styles and philosophy.
Sparred raps with each other, practicing constantly.
It was ODB, Ghostface, Raekwon, Deck, Rza,
Masta Killa, U-God, and Genius AKA Gza (jiz’-uh).
Rza based his urban young crew on verbal kung fu
though they sold crack on the curb and toted guns too.
Quoted Sun Tzu, “Strike at their gaps. Attack when they’re lax.
Never let the enemy figure out how to act.”

Rza became Abbot. Stat Isle became Shaolin.
Crew renamed Wu-Tang. New plans empowerin.
Come strong as a group then sign solo with dif labels.
Spend money on mansions, not just on cables.
Talking darts, rocking parties, won flock of hearts like Calista.
Edutainment from KRS-1. KRS came from KRiShna. Finish the mishna.

Rza, forsaken like bacon, had to take ten
from classic records made in the basement.

Around 2000 Rza visited the real Shaolin Mountain
with Sifu Shi Yan-Ming who teach what chi and Chan* can bring.
They met the real Wudan abbot. Saw General Wu as black Asiatic.
An American saw snake and terrapin/turtle in Temple of Purple Cloud,
from which Zhen Wu hurtled out, higher in sky than the seraphim.

The case that god is a human ain’t new to a true fan.
He changed lots of lives when he stotted the Wu Clan.
Which came first? The chicken or egg?
Man made god.
Ain’t that a kick in the head?
He got sticked and he bled. Rza said,
“Jesus said, ‘Take me off the pedESTal
and polish your vessel.'” What makes you
different is what makes you special.

“What have you achieved that din’t begin as a vision?”
“Good question,” he said. “Some of my children.”
He now writes “Wu-Tang Manual Volume 2: The Wisdom.”
First chapter, “Universal Changer,” he wrote as “lonely” teenager
By “lonely” I think he meant prison. From psycho slums
to microphones to Triton taiko drums, Rza has risen.
(Tomorrow’s not a given. Make each moment count.
Over and out. Thanks for listenin ta Talkin Journalism.)

*Chan is Zen Buddhism

Source 

Posted: 25th, June 2008 | In: Strange But True | Comment


This Year’s Top 10 New Species: Save The Philautus Maia

THE world is dying. Polar bears are dying. What will we do when the ice melts and even the German breeding programme can’t save the polar bears from extinction?

Why, we will move on and find some new creatures.

Each year the International Institute for Species Exploration at Arizona State University announces a list of the Top 10 New Species for the preceding calendar year. This is No. 4 from the menu. Save the Philautua maia:

4. Philautus maia

ASU / IISE

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Posted: 25th, June 2008 | In: Strange But True | Comment


Man Hides Mobile Phone Up Anus

CAUGHT on camera::

JUNE 23–Meet Jeffrey Barrier. The Ohio man allegedly used a cell phone camera to snap photos of a naked woman at a tanning salon Saturday and then hid the phone in his anus in a bid to thwart police.

Standing on a chair, Barrier, 41, took the photos at Cincinnati’s Aloha Tanning, where a 35-year-old woman was “in the nude in a tanning room,” according to a Hamilton County Municipal Court affidavit.

When cops later confronted Barrier, “he kept denying any involvement of the incident” and claimed to not have a camera. However, a second search of the suspect turned up the camera. As noted in a Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office report, Barrier “did hide evidence in his anus.”

Barrier, pictured in the below mug shot, was charged with disorderly conduct for taking the photos and obstructing official business for hampering a police investigation. Barrier, due in court today, is free on $1500 bond.

I have seen CCTV. I have seen the future…

Source 

Posted: 24th, June 2008 | In: Strange But True | Comments (5)


Lebanon’s Buns And Guns Restaurant

buns-and-guns.jpgTHE SMELL of war:

A fast-food restaurant in Beirut’s war-torn southern suburb has hit upon an explosive way to attract customers.

Buns and Guns is made out to look like a military post and diners eat to the sound of gunfire instead of muzak.

Owner Yousef Ibrahim presents rebranded Lebanese favourites like the “rocket-propelled grenade” (chicken on a skewer) and “terrorist bread”.

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Posted: 24th, June 2008 | In: Strange But True | Comments (4)


George Carlin Beings Us The News

GEOEGE Carlin is dead. And the news goes on:

Posted: 24th, June 2008 | In: Strange But True | Comment


A Chinese Apology

FROM the South China Morning Post:

A sincere apology to Carlson Tong Ka-shing for the serious error in this column last week. Mr Tong recently stepped down as chairman of the listing committee of the Hong Kong stock exchange, having served on the committee for six years, the maximum term permitted under the listing rules. This is what was originally written. Unfortunately, during the editing process, it was misinterpreted and erroneously reported as “Carlson Tong Ka-shing who has been jailed for six years”, which is completely false“.

Via

Posted: 23rd, June 2008 | In: Broadsheets, Strange But True | Comments (4)


The Ukranian Coffin Restaurant

IN the Ukrain you can eat in a restaurant shaped like a coffin:

Russian coffin shaped resaurant in Ukraine 2

Russian coffin shaped resaurant in Ukraine 4

Russian coffin shaped resaurant in Ukraine 5

Russian coffin shaped resaurant in Ukraine 8

Via

Posted: 21st, June 2008 | In: Photojournalism, Strange But True | Comment


Dentist Drops Screwdriver And Wrench Down Patient’s Throat

dentist.jpg“MY father did not die in God’s time,” says Anne Greer. “Wesley Meyers is the one who is responsible for my father’s death and it was a horrible death.”

“It has been a nightmare. No one should have to die like my father died. Wesley Meyers is solely responsible for that tool entering my father’s body.”

In October of 2006, Anne Greer took her father, Charles Gaal, 90, to dentist Dr. Wesley Meyers in Winter Park, Floraida for implants to secure his dentures.

During the procedure, Greer said Meyers dropped a medical screwdriver down her father’s throat. She said it took a colonoscopy to have the screwdriver removed from his large intestine

Then, in May of 2007, Gaal returned to Wesley for implants and a different tool, a torque wrench, was accidentally dropped down his throat

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Posted: 21st, June 2008 | In: Strange But True | Comments (6)


There Will Be No Swiss Armageddon: Large Hadron Collider

ARMAGEDDON out of here: – Satan is upon us:

MOSCOW. (Yury Zaitsev for RIA Novosti) – A black hole will appear in mid-July on the border between France and Switzerland, swallowing up first Europe and then the entire planet. Such are the apocalyptic forecasts being made ahead of the scheduled launching, in three weeks, of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC).

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Posted: 21st, June 2008 | In: Strange But True | Comments (10)


Edith Macefield Dies

macefield.jpgEDITH Macefield has died: Reports the SeattlePI:

Edith Macefield died at home, just the way she wanted.

The Ballard woman who captured hearts and admirers around the world when she stubbornly turned down $1 million to sell her home to make way for a commercial development died Sunday of pancreatic cancer. She was 86.

“I don’t want to move. I don’t need the money. Money doesn’t mean anything,” she told the Seattle P-I in October.

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Posted: 20th, June 2008 | In: Money, Strange But True | Comments (2)


Keep Off The Headscarves: Tehran’s Female Only Park

tehran-park.jpgHEADSCRAVES off in Tehran’s first female-only park.

Last month the Tehran municipality opened the “Mothers’ Paradise” park in the upmarket north of the city to create a male-free zone every day of the week except Friday.

Built on hills and filled with lush evergreens, it was deemed an ideal spot for any park. It is now surrounded by iron sheets up to four metres (13 feet) high to keep out prying eyes.

“It is a good place to take in fresh air and finally dress as you want,” said 39-year-old Nasrin who lives nearby and comes to the park almost every day. “In an Islamic country this is as good as it gets.”

Spotter: Ed

Posted: 20th, June 2008 | In: Strange But True | Comments (12)


How The Media Bloggers Association Works

BLOGGERS! Feel their power. Teresa Nielsen Hayden discovers

The Media Bloggers Association substantially consists of one lackluster blogger named Robert Cox. His weblog, Words in Edgewise, and the MBA website, are two halves of the same site. Robert Cox isn’t all that interested in blogging per se. What he’s really into is self-aggrandizement by representing himself as someone who speaks for bloggers and blogging. An embarrassing number of organizations have fallen for this.

Says AP:

AP to meet with blogging group to form guidelines

The Associated Press, following criticism from bloggers over an AP assertion of copyright, plans to meet this week with a bloggers’ group to help form guidelines under which AP news stories could be quoted online.

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Posted: 20th, June 2008 | In: Strange But True | Comment (1)


Headless Chickens, Dead Horses And Toasted Saints At The Toaster At The Biennial of Sydney

ferrari-jesus.jpgIT’S “this year’s” “Biennial of Sydney, reports the Sydney Morning Herald.

An exhibition by the Australian artist Mike Parr, which includes a film showing a live chicken being decapitated, has prompted a complaint to the RSPCA and a visit from police.

The film is being screened in a derelict building on Cockatoo Island… It is one of 17 works by Parr included in a confronting show called Mirror/Arse, which documents his “most daring and demanding” performances and explores “trauma and subjectivity”.

The police officers who visited the exhibition yesterday were overheard expressing astonishment and disgust at work, which includes footage of Parr sitting in a chair slicing his arm with a blade and holding his index finger over a lit candle until his skin burns.

Also in show is Western Christian Civilisation by the Argentinian artist Leon Ferrari.

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Posted: 19th, June 2008 | In: Broadsheets, Strange But True | Comments (20)


A Slow News Day In Bournemouth

snail-mail.jpgSLOW times in Bournemouth where disabled armed robber Kevin Staples is at the till.

As the Mail reports:

He had hobbled up to the counter at the gift shop Past Times, in Crawley, West Sussex produced a 12-inch bread knife and demanded the cashier empty the till.

He is then said to have “tried to lunge” towards the till.

But when the shop assistant shouted at him he carefully put the weapon in a bag hanging on his zimmer frame before hobbling out.

No joy in Crawley. But in Bournemouth…

Two days previously, he had help up a Bottoms Up off-licence in Bournemouth, Dorset, by waving a walking stick in the air.

He told staff: “Give me all the money from the safe or I’m going to batter you.” When an assistant said he did not have access to the safe or till, Staples mumbled ‘give me some fags then’ before hobbling out of the shop with the stick.

In other Bournemouth news, a “slow art” project called Real Snail Mail at Bournemouth University, features Muriel, Austin and Cecil, “snails for the electronic age”:

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Posted: 19th, June 2008 | In: Strange But True, Tabloids | Comments (6)


Finding Your Feet In Canada

ANOTHER human foot found on Canada’s Pacific coast. It’s the sixth:

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) — Another human foot was found Wednesday on a British Colombia shoreline, the second this week and the sixth within a year in a bizarre mystery that has confounded police.00

Like most of the others, it was a right foot encased in a running shoe, said Sgt. Mike Tresoor of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. He said a citizen spotted it on a beach and no other remains were found.

First they came for the joggers…

Posted: 19th, June 2008 | In: Strange But True | Comments (7)


Thai School Opens Transvestite Toilet For Students

THE Kampang School in northeastern Thailand discovered that more than 200 of the school’s 2,600 students considered themselves transgender.

School director Sitisak Sumontha decidfed to act. A unisex restroom was created -designated by a human figure split in half, part man in blue and part woman in red. 

It is also marked “Transvestite Toilet”.

But transvestites are not transgenders, not are they transfatty acids, trans Siberian railways or ten-year transport policies.

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Posted: 18th, June 2008 | In: Strange But True | Comments (3)


Not Amy Winehouse Arrested In Norway

NO, not Amy Winehouse: 

A British woman’s bulging wig did not fool customs agents in Norway who realized she wasn’t just having a bad hair day. The wig was concealing 2.2 pounds of cocaine glued to her head and customs agents detained her on suspicion of cocaine smuggling, authorities said Wednesday.

The 32-year-old suspect, whose name was withheld, arrived late Sunday at Vaernes airport near the city of Trondheim on a flight from Copenhagen, Denmark, the customs service said.

“The agent thought she had a great deal of hair and suspected that she was wearing a wig,” the agency said. “The wig was examined and the agents found a bag of cocaine.”

Do not insert picture of Amy Winehouse here.

Source

Posted: 18th, June 2008 | In: Celebrities, Strange But True | Comments (3)


Police Log: Burglar Flees To Police Station

“IT was stupid of him,” said a police spokesman in Frankfurt Monday. “They took the cuffs off, but they kept him.”

A security guard had handcuffed the man after spotting the break-in. But by the time officers arrived, the man had managed to escape.

Arriving at the police station, the 19-year-old told officers he had been locked up by a friend as a joke, and asked for their help. The officers at first went along with the ruse, “also laughing at the man’s apparent misfortune,”..

He was soon arrested…

Source 

Posted: 18th, June 2008 | In: Strange But True | Comment (1)


Going Down On A US Marine

going-down-on-a-marine.jpg

Spotter: Ed

Posted: 18th, June 2008 | In: Photojournalism, Strange But True | Comments (2)


One Of Our Trampolines Is Missing

trampoline.jpgIN JERSEY four separate trampoline mats have now been stolen in the last fortnight.

And in the garden of the Kidson family, York, Harvey waits.

In a scene the Express says “could have some straight out of Colditz” Harvey the bull terrier bounds onto the trampoline and in a bounces clear of the garden fence.

Anorak looked away from teh film when the incarcerated squaddies bounced clear of the Nazis’ barbed wire, but hears Kommandant Laura, mother to Chloe and (you name your dog after a person and your child…) Cole, say: “He’s something of an escape artist and has got out before.”

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Posted: 18th, June 2008 | In: Strange But True, Tabloids | Comment


Woman Sues Victoria Secret Over Thong Injury

THONG takes woman’s eye out:

As she was attempting to put on a Victoria’s Secret thong, a Los Angeles woman claims that a decorative metallic piece flew off the garment and struck her in the eye, causing injuries and a new product liability lawsuit against the underwear giant. Macrida Patterson, 52, alleges that she was hurt last May by a defective “low-rise v-string” from the Victoria’s Secret “Sexy Little Thing” line, according to a lawsuit filed last week in Los Angeles Superior Court…

Patterson’s lawyer, Jason Buccat, told TSG that a “design problem” caused the decorative piece to come loose and strike Patterson in the eye, causing damage to her cornea. He added that the eye injury, which caused Patterson to miss a few days of work, will be “affecting her the rest of her life.” Patterson is a traffic officer with L.A.’s Department of Transportation. Prior to the lawsuit’s filing, Victoria’s Secret officials asked to examine the garment and the decorative piece, but that request was rejected by Patterson’s counsel.

For those unfamiliar with “v-strings,” the undergarment is the Victoria’s Secret variant on the “g-string,” which has long been favored in the battle against visible panty lines.

Source 

Posted: 17th, June 2008 | In: Strange But True | Comments (10)